Harry Potter: At Destiny's End
by ooOCaptainTurboOoo
Summary: Part One of the Destiny trilogy, A rewrite of book seven, what would happen if secrets were unveiled, what if questions were asked and loyalties weren't so blind and what if a certain muggleborn finally got back her common sense. Rated for language. H/Hr romance, Ron/Ginny/Molly Bashing (Please read Introduction page formore)
1. Intro & Chapter I

**Introduction**

_**Please read before continuing to the story.**_

This is now my third and hopefully final attempt at this story, the first three chapter have been up before and are still very much the same as before with a few improvements here and there.

_**Warnings for the story:**_

1. Ron Bashing - I hate the character and he will not be portrayed in good light in any of my stories, if you like the character I would advise that you give my stories a miss.

2. Weasley Bashing - Not to the same extent as Ron and they will be redeemed (to an extent) before the trilogy is over.

3. H/Hr Romance – It's going to happen and I will not be making it a threesome or a harem, so far this is the only pairing set in stone.

4. Manipulative Dumbledore – He will be bashed but he won't be evil, I like a Dumbledore that can only see his outcome as being right.

5. Severus and Draco Bashing - I don't like either character and I believe they both got off lightly in canon, I also don't buy into either actually being good guys.

– Mainly Hermione as I'll have her actually questioning Dumbledore's decisions, there will be a reason for this but not for a long time.

**Also one last thing, please try to forgive my bad spelling, I know I could get a beta but I'd rather do my work myself.**

**Also I plan to update on Sundays, It will probably not be every Sunday but if I do have anything to upload it will be that day only.**

**ooO~Ooo**

**Chapter I**

**Plans at Privet Drive**

**Disclaimer:** **I don't own Harry Potter, but I wish I did, sadly I don't except in my dreams.**

The Seventeen year old Harry Potter laid upon his his bed at number four Privet Drive, unsurprisingly after everything that had happened recently his mind was going a mile a minute.

Two weeks ago had been the funeral of one Albus Dumbledore and it was fair to say Harry still hadn't gotten over the aged man's death, sorry and despair had already come and gone and all that remained was sadness and anger.

Harry's anger was directed at the task Dumbledore had left him, He had been given the job of hunting down Horcruxes or more specifically Tom Riddle's Horcruxes, Harry mentally checked his list, knowing he had already destroyed one back in his second year was a positive and that Dumbledore had destroyed one was uplifting but after having only found a fake on the mission he and Dumbledore had been on it did put a damper on his spirits.

If the really Locket was destroyed then that was definitely a plus for the good guys and Harry really wanted to shake the hand of whoever struck a blow to Voldemort, no the problem was he now had to track down whoever R.A.B was and find out if he had been successful, on top of all that there were still four other Horcruxes out there and he only had leads on two of those.

Harry sat up and continued to think,

"_Hufflepuff's cup, no idea where that could be, a trip to Hogwarts might be on the cards after all,_

_Nagini is definitely a most certainty, Going to have to leave her to last sadly,_

_Dumbledore mentioned Hogwarts founders artefacts, other that Gryffindor's sword I can't think of any...perhaps I should have read Hogwarts a History...better not say that out loud Hermione will never let me live it down,_

_Two possibilities, one I know where it will be the other I have no idea, and the other two I have no idea what they could be...How does Dumbledore expect me to do this?"_ Harry groaned in annoyance.

Harry hated to admit it but he didn't have much of a plan at the moment, he planned to leave for Grimmuald place right after the Bill and Fleur's wedding but after that he was ashamed to admit that he had no idea what to do from then on,

Harry looked over at the empty bird cage, absently wondering where Hedwig might be at this moment, perhaps she was on her way back fro the Weasley's or something, he had only had one letter so far over the entire summer and that had been from the Weasleys, wishing him well and reminding him about the wedding,

Harry was actually looking forward to the wedding as he had never been to one before and had only seen them on TV before,

However going to the Burrow meant he would have to see his now ex-girlfriend sooner or later, Ginny was another problem that constantly niggled at his mind,

He remembered her final words to him at the funeral, _"I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were off fighting him",_ This one sentence bugged the hell out of him,

"_Does that girl really not know me at all, anyone who knows me knows I hate being the centre of all this...Ginny SHOULD know me better than this...__**Maybe she never got over the boy-who-lived rubbish...**__No it can't be that I mean she stopped being all shy and everything around me...__**True but other than snogging we never talked or anything...**__I don't know, maybe but we have plenty in common...like...Quidditch and...err...we're both Gryffindors...__**Struggling I see...**__who asked you...oh crap I'm arguing with myself"_

Harry sighed again in annoyance, He hated to think it but his relationship with Ginny had been little more than kissing, He honestly did care about the girl but he couldn't open up to her like he had been able to with Hermione or Sirius, he just couldn't bring himself to tell her stuff and Ginny never asked so he had let it lie,

He wondered briefly what he would do when he crossed paths with her again,

He yawned loudly, as tired as he was he doubted he'd get much sleep, amazingly enough he was unconscious within minutes of his head hitting the pillow.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry groaned as he awoke as the light hit his eyes, he stumbled out of bed to hear a screech from the window, putting on his glasses he saw Hedwig sitting there patiently on the window waiting for his to let her in,

"Sorry Hedwig, I forgot to open the window last night" he apologised, the white owl nipped him slightly in annoyance after dropping the letter, Harry proceeded to rip the letter open, instantly recognising Ron's scratchy writing,

_Dear Harry_

_How are things?_

_At the moment the wedding is up and running, You can hardly recognise the fields outside of the Burrow, Mum's driving us all insane with her constant bouts of of organizing, seriously she's trying to take over this wedding,_

_Anyway the place is crowded at the moment and it's only going to get worse on Saturday,_

_Anyway Lupin is coming to pick you up Friday I think so I guess I'll see you then._

_By the way have you heard from Hermione, she isn't responding to my letters, at least not properly, has she contacted you yet?_

_Ron_

Harry frowned in confusion, He hadn't actually received post from Hermione yet, which was strange considering she usually was the first one to contact him*,

Harry was suddenly getting anxious and decided to contact her in hopes she would respond,

_Dear Hermione_

_I just wanted to know if your alright, I haven't heard from you yet and Ron said you haven't contacted him yet either, _

_Please let me know,_

_Hope you summer is going well and can't wait to see you._

_Harry_

Harry started a reply to Ron as well,

_Dear Ron_

_Things are fine around here, The Dursley's have decided to ignore me which is how I like them best, I think knowing they never have to see me again helps them as well._

_I'm looking forward to coming to the Burrow, I'm kind of interested in seeing the wedding as I've never been to one before, plus I want to see if it's different to a Muggle wedding._

_Actually no I haven't heard from Hermione since I've got back, still I've sent a letter to her to see if she'll respond, I'm sure she's fine._

_Anyway I'll see you soon._

_Harry_

Harry allowed Hedwig to get a couple of hours rest before sending her off with both letters, Thinking back to his two friends Harry couldn't help but think how much they had grown apart over the last year, Ron had been tied up with Lavender for a good portion of it and even after all that ended Harry could feel the distance between them hadn't really been resolved too much,

Of course the biggest change in character last year had been Hermione, Harry was well aware that she had a crush on Ron and though it he saw a part of Hermione he'd never seen before and a part he really didn't like too much, Harry wondered if her jealousy with Ron had fuelled her anger at Harry over the book, Whilst Harry was willing to admit that in the end it had caused him to almost kill Malfoy none of the potion tips had had any negative side effects,

Harry sighed, whilst he had been wrong about the book Hermione had been dead wrong about Malfoy, she had apologised for not believing him but Harry wasn't sure if he could trust her on the upcoming quest or not, oh he trusted Hermione with his life but could he trust that she would listen to him when needed to,

Pulling himself up off the bed, Harry decided that he would have a talk with Hermione when he had the chance, He was really going to need her help on this one but the air needed to be cleared first.

**Ooo~ooO**

The next day arouse much the same as the day before, around dinnertime however he received a reply from Hermione, Harry let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding,

_Dear Harry_

_Please don't worry I'm perfectly alright, I've simply been busy researching and coming up with ideas for our task._

_Also I hadn't realised it had been two weeks already so I apologise for not contacting you any sooner,_

_As to Ronald's letters I have responded but the prat had the gal to question my desire to spend a little time with my parents or "the muggles" as he calls them, so forgive me if I'm not in the mood to talk to him, _

_I'm heading to the Burrow on Thursday so I'll see you soon, _

_Hope your well._

_Love _

_Hermione_

Harry smiled slightly in relief, he could only shake his head at Ron's attitude to Hermione's parents, H e dreaded when those two started dating, Not just because it would be awkward but Ron was going to step in it quite a lot unless he could change and Hermione was way to serious about things for Ron,

Harry sighed, Truth be told he himself had wondered what would have happened if he had asked out his bushy haired best friend, he remembered the Yule Ball and how beautiful she had been that night, he had felt a lot of jealousy about Victor Krum that night but at the end he knew he only had himself to blame,

He always knew Hermione was a girl but he hadn't really considered her anything but a best friend until that moment, not that he didn't think she was attractive before that night, he simply hadn't considered the possibility, sadly it seemed Ron also fancied Hermione as well and not wanting to risk his friendship with him again he had pushed his little crush down,

It also seemed that Hermione felt something for Ron as well so it was just as well he had pushed his feelings down in the end, still Harry did wonder the what if of it all,

Shaking himself from the thoughts he decided it was probably time to start packing, whilst he did have a couple of days left at the Durselys he didn't want to forget anything less he have to come back to this hell hole.

**Ooo~ooO**

Several days later Harry was fully packed and read to head to the Burrow, he was just waiting on Remus to come and pick him up, sadly he knew he was going to have to have a word with the Durselys before he left, as much as he didn't like them, he couldn't condemn them to death which was sorely possible after his birthday which was only a couple of days away,

At the moment he was waiting on Remus, it would probably be better if he was there to help explain the situation,

Finally around noon a knock came from the front door, the Durselys were sat in the living room watching TV so Harry went to answer, looking through the peep hole he recognised the face of his former professor and friend Remus Lupin,

He opened the door a crack not revealing the wand his his right hand,

"Hello Remus" he said politely, the older man smiled warmly,

"Hello Harry, are you well?" he asked, Harry nodded,

"Yes I'm fine, What spell did you spend hours teaching me during third year?" Harry asked,

"The Pratronus of course, what's the password for the map?" he asked in reply,

"I Solemnly swear that I'm up to no good" Harry replied relaxing and opening the door properly,

"Good to see your being precocious Harry" Remus said as he walked in,

"Well you can't be too careful I suppose, still how have you been Remus?" Harry asked,

"I'm not too bad Harry all things considered, how are you?"

"I'm okay I guess just pondering stuff I suppose" Harry replied, Remus nodded,

"Well are you packed and ready to leave?" Remus asked looking around for any luggage,

"Yeah I'm packed and everything Remus but what should I do about the Dursley's?" Harry asked, Remus nodded understanding what Harry meant,

"Yes the Order discussed this the other day, we decided to have a chat with them later on today, hopefully we can get them to leave but if not we'll have the place warded" He explained,

"I can't see Uncle Vernon leaving this place, especially if it's the idea of a wizard or witch, in fact he'll probably put Aunt Petunia and Dudley in jeopardy just to spite us" Harry retorted,

Remus took a moment to ponder this,

"Do you really think it'll be that bad?" Harry nodded, He sighed resigning himself to the belief,

"Maybe I should go and have a word with them, I seriously doubt I can reason with Uncle Vernon but Aunt Petunia and Dudley might listen to me with a bit of luck, it might help if your there to back me up" Harry explained, Remus nodded,

"Then lead the way Harry", Harry lead Remus into the living room and unsurprisingly all three Dursley's shot up in surprise, again not surprisingly Vernon was the first to yell,

"Boy WHAT THE HELL do you think your doing bringing in another...one of your kind without warning us?" He yelled, Harry rolled his eyes long passed his Uncle's anger,

"Sorry but I don't have time for this, As you might remember this is Remus Lupin, a friend of my parents and a former Professor at my school, Look I'll be quick and blunt, I'm leaving in a few minutes...for good, I won't be coming back here ever again however this does have a negative effect" Harry explained, Vernon first looked enraged that the freak had the gal to brush off his question but his mood lightened considerably when he mentioned he wouldn't have to see the freak ever again,

"I fail to see the bad in this boy" his Uncle replied venomously,

"It means that on my birthday the protection that Dumbledore placed on this place will disappear and you'll be vulnerable to attacks" Harry explained,

"What do you mean attacks boy, you mean more of those Demember things?" His uncle asked getting red from anger at his family being in danger,

"No not Dementors, no this will be by Death Eaters" His aunt suddenly looked up in her face scrunched up in confusion,

"I recognise that name, weren't they what's his name's followers or something?" she asked, Harry was surprised at how calm and accepting of all this she was,

"Yes they are and his name is Voldemort for the record, Look Remus here and a few others can place some wards around the house that might work but I would seriously recommend moving house" Harry replied,

"And just how are we suppose to pay for all that Boy, even if what your saying is true we can't afford to just sell up and move away" His uncle spat at him,

Harry rubbed his head in frustration, luckily Remus came to his aid,

"Actually we might have a plan for that but I would agree with Harry, moving would be best for your family Mr Dursley" Remus interjected,

"And what is this plan?" Vernon demanded,

"I would rather wait till later today, with your permission I'd like to bring a couple of...colleagues of mine around to explain it to you in full", Remus replied calmly, Harry raised an eyebrow at this but decided to ask Remus later,

"And why do we have to move anyway, even if these wards of yours fall, these...people don't know where we live" Remus actually blushed a bit at this,

"Actually it turns out we had a traitor in a group, I believe you know Severus Snape"

"SNAPE!" Petunia shrieked, Vernon looked confused unable to recognise the name looked at his wife,

"You know this man?" he asked, Petunia nodded,

"Yes that...thing was the one who explained all that freaky stuff to Lily and I, He was also a friend of hers I think" Petunia said,

Harry shudder at this, he hated the idea of that man having anything to do with his parents, Remus again interrupted,

"Well anyway you can understand our worry that with Snape working with the enemy he has a lot of information as well as this address, so if it's alright with the two of you, may I come back later and explain our plan in full?" Vernon still looked pissed off and unsure but Petunia could see the seriousness in all this and put her prejudice aside for now,

"Very well, what time will you be back?" she asked,

"Oh I shouldn't be long, I'll most likely be back within an hour" he replied, Petunia nodded before turning to walk away into the kitchen, she looked back at Harry one last time, Harry wasn't certain but he would swear she said goodbye,

"Well I guess that's it, Thank you for everything and I wish you the best" Harry said politely to them, Remus looked bewildered at the lack of a goodbye, Dudley wasn't even paying attention any more and was back to watching TV, Vernon didn't reply and grumbled unintelligently,

Harry lead Remus to his trunk and watched the man shrink it before handing it to Harry, the two walked out of the front door,

"So...how are we getting to the Burrow Remus?" Harry asked,

"Apparition pup" he answered, Harry looked bemused,

"Then why are we walking away?" Remus looked slightly embarrassed,

"Well you see what with my lyncathropy I can't apparate so Tonks is going to take us both" Remus explained, Harry nodded and suddenly had a brainwave,

"Is that why you travelled on the express back in my third year?" Harry questioned,

"Partly, Dumbledore was aware that Dementors might attack the train and he wanted someone who could at least cast a partial Pratronus protecting the train" Remus explained, harry nodded in understanding,

The two continued to chat idly as Remus lead him towards the park, both males suddenly stopped mouths opened as they watched the Pink haired Witch swinging like crazy on the swing set, she saw the two men standing watching her and started laughing before stopping the swing,

"So is this what you do when I'm not watching" Remus said jokingly,

"Well I was bored and it was begging to be played on, I believe I've said that to you before haven't I wolfie" Tonks replied playfully causing him to go fully red in the cheeks, harry smiled at his friends face, Tonks turned to him,

"Hey Harry, how's tricks?" she asked,

"I'm well Tonks, how are you?"

"Bored kiddo, anyway great catching up" she joked causing Harry to laugh at her childish attitude,

"Anyway since your too young and Wolfie here is inadequate"

"HEY!" Remus said in mock hurt,

"Anyway I'm taking you to the Burrow first, I know you know how but until you have you license you'll be linking arms with me...now I know I'm attractive and all but please try not to think of me too much whilst were apparating" she said, Harry blushed a little himself,

"I''ll try not too" she nodded a cheeky smile on her face,

"Would you stop flirting with him, your boyfriend is stood right here you know" Remus said in mock indignation,

"Fine, fine ruin my fun, I'll be back in a few minutes wolfie, why not try the swings while I'm gone" she said jokingly,

"I'll just wait here thank you",

Tonks grabbed Harry's hand before turning serious,

"Are you ready Harry?" she asked, Harry nodded before he was suddenly wisped away to the Burrow leaving Remus behind who suddenly had an urge to actually try the swing set.


	2. Chapter II

**Chapter II**

**Wedding Woes**

**Disclaimer:** **JK owns Harry Potter, I wonder where she keeps him.**

Harry followed Tonks as she lead him up the road towards the familiar sight of The Burrow, Harry could see a huge white tent in the background behind the Burrow, he assumed this was where the wedding would take place,

"So Tonks what is the plan Remus has for the Dursley's?" Harry asked as his curiosity got the better of him, Tonks however looked uncertain,

"Well...you see I can't really tell you Harry" she replied apologetically, Harry felt his anger rise a little, he hated when people did this sort of thing,

"I'm not a kid Tonks, plus there my relatives and..." however Tonks cut him off,

"Harry it isn't about you being a kid, Merlin knows you've been through a lot, it's simply for security reasons" she explained, Harry however was confused still,

"How do you mean?" he asked,

"Well we very recently found out that Hogwarts might be re-opened and what with you probably going there, we're not sure if any of the other students will know legilimency and...no offence Harry but your occlumency isn't...it's...well it sucks" she explained worriedly, she knew Harry had quite a temper at times,

Harry wanted to dispute all this but it meant telling Tonks he wasn't returning to Hogwarts this year even if it did re-open, plus it wasn't a bad idea, didn't mean he was happy about it though,

"Yeah I guess that makes sense, does this mean you can't tell me anything about what the Order are doing?" he asked,

Tonks shook her head,

"Not a lot to tell kiddo, after Dumbledore...died the Order has been a bit chaotic while we try and organise ourselves, to be perfectly honest Harry the only thing that's really been sorted is the plan for your relatives" she told him truthfully,

Harry sighed in acceptance, he had been hoping the order had been trying to help fight but he could understand there lack of progress with the leader recently dead,

They soon strived up towards the Burrow only for the voice of Mrs Weasley to screech in the Kitchen before she came bombarding outside,

"Oh hello Harry dear, it's so good to see you, I hope those muggles treated you well" she said as she gathered him up in a hug, Harry stiffened a little and felt slightly awkward,

"Hello Mrs Weasley, yeah I'm well and no the Dursley's were fine" he replied, she finally relented her hold on him,

"That's good but your looking a little underfed my dear" she suddenly acknowledged Tonks,

"Dora so nice to see you again"

"Hello Molly, how are things going with perpetrations for tomorrow?" Tonks asked, Molly face however darkened,

"Please dear, don't ask...I swear those French relatives of Fleur's are turning this place into a circus...You would not believe what they wanted me to serve tomorrow..snails...SNAILS...can you believe it?" she said, Tonks was going to reply to this but her boyfriend was still waiting on her,

"Yeah nasty, anyway Molly I've gotta get going, Remus is still waiting for me" she said before turning to Harry,

"See you tomorrow Kiddo, save me a dance" she said laughing at Harry turning red, Molly led him into the kitchen,

"Err Mrs Weasley, where is everyone, Ron mentioned how busy it was here" Harry asked walking into the empty house,

"Oh they all went to have a last drink before tomorrow at that pub in town, Ron Ginny and Hermione are in the tent out back however" she explained, Harry nodded,

"Well I'll go help them then" Harry said before Mrs Weasley stopped him, "Not just yet young man, Have you had your breakfast or even more so dinner?" she asked, Harry hated to admit it but he had been so excited and nervous about today he forgot to eat,

"No I haven't but I'll be fine" he said Molly however wasn't having any of it, she pulled a bowl of soup out of the oven, Harry sat down, he was hungry and the soup did look inviting,

"I figured those muggles wouldn't feed you dear" she said as she handed him a couple of slices of bread,

"I didn't want to put you out ma'am" Harry said feeling a little guilty,

"Oh don't be silly dear boy, everyone had soup for lunch, I just made sure they saved a little" she said as she went back to her other duties,

Harry began eating happily if somewhat quickly, he was after all looking forward to seeing his friends a Ginny again.

**ooO~Ooo**

Less than ten minutes later he made his way out back was about to enter the tent when he was stopped by a bunch of familiar voices,

"Hey guys look it's Harrykins" One of the twins voiced, Harry turned to see the twins and Charlie Weasley walking back up the drive,

"Hey guys, your mum said you were at the pub" Harry said as he shook hands with Charlie who he hadn't seen for several years,

"We were buddy but things started getting a little rowdy and whatnot"

"Yeah putting the French and English in a small room like that"

"Not to mention Alcohol intake"

"Or Fleur's good looking relatives"

"Oh the fact that we may have slipped a couple of people some of our products"

"It's safe to say we're surprised the pub trip lasted this long" The twins said altering between sentences, Charlie sighed as he leaned on the stone fence,

"I swear if I ever get married I'll convince the girl to al-lope" he said,

"Oh but brother Charles you'll miss out on mum going all commander on you and everyone else"

"All the screaming all the yelling"

"Hell I think we've learned three curse words in French" the twins started again, Harry however butted in,

"So Fleur and all her family are here already?" he asked, the twins shook their heads,

"Some of Fleur's family is but not all of them, most are coming in first thing tomorrow"

"What about Bill and Fleur where are they?" Harry asked,

"Bill's with the French apologising for us probably, and Fleur is staying at her parents until the actual wedding"

"She was here but she left about three days ago" Charlie interjected, Harry confused asked why,

"Well she 'claims' it's to finish up things with her bridesmaids and whatnot" Charlie explained, the twins however snickered,

"That's what she and Bill claim but I thinks it's to preserve Ron's life" Fred replied,

"What do you mean?" Harry asked confused,

"Well you know full well how Ron acts around her, he can't control himself, the daft git looks like a drooling statue whenever he's around her" George explained,

"Plus Bill was getting seriously pissed off with him, I mean I'm not going to lie the girl is a major beauty but none of us go into retard mode around her" Fred continued,

Harry shook his head, he had thought Ron might have been able to finally overcome the allure, he sat for a minute or two before begging off to find his friends, he was about to enter the tent again when his ex suddenly stepped out,

"Oh Harry hi" she said shocked at the sudden sight of her ex boyfriend,

"Hi Ginny" he replied meekly, Harry suddenly felt very warm for some reason,

"Err when did you get here?" she asked politely,

"About fifteen minutes ago" he replied,

"Really, where have you been?"

"Err your mum made me some soup and I ran into the twins and Charlie about five minutes ago" he explained, Silence overtook both of them and Ginny seemed to be getting agitated for some reason,

"So...are Ron and Hermione inside?" Harry asked, to his surprise however she shook her head,

"No Ron wanted a word with her, I'm not sure what but if I had to guess there probably off snogging" she said, Harry hid the grimace on his face but only just,

"Really, I didn't know they had started dating" Harry replied,

"I'm not sure if they are but it's only a matter of time" she replied, Silence once again made itself known, after realising their conversation was finished Ginny turned to leave,

"Well mum needs some help, I'll see you later I guess" she said walking away, Harry looked into the tent and could see the wedding party was coming along well but he couldn't find his friends anywhere, he started walking off hoping he didn't come across them snogging, a loud voice indicated his friends were doing anything but kissing,

"What do you mean I'm not your boyfriend!" came the voice of Ron Weasley shouting,

"Ron we aren't nor have we ever dated, I love you dearly but I don't think of you that way" Came the voice of his other best friend Hermione Granger who was speaking as calmly as possible,

"Bollocks, what about all that at Dumbledore funeral" he spat at her, Harry crept up slowly,

"I needed someone's shoulder to cry on Ron I thought you understood that"

"Well stop sending me mixed signals then!" Ron yelled back,

"What was I suppose to do pull Ginny of her boyfriend just so I could cry on his shoulder" Hermione replied a little anger laced in her voice now,

"Well what about how jealous you were last year when I was dating Lavender?" Ron asked again anger in his voice,

"Yes I was jealous but not of Lavender, I was jealous that you and Harry both had relationships whilst I didn't I felt you were throwing it in my face" Hermione explained,

"Bullshit how about..." suddenly Hermione spotted Harry walking up,

"Harry!" she called, relief spreading across her face, Ron turned to see his black haired friend, Harry watched as Ron's face went from anger to annoyance,

"Sorry guys I didn't mean to interrupt, I can come back later" he said meekly, Hermione sighed,

"No we're done here"

"Oh we're done are we!" Ron asked his voice raising again, Hermione looked at his defiantly,

"Yes we are", Ron glared at her, knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere especially now Harry had arrived,

"FINE!" he said as he turned and walked away, Harry watched before turning to Hermione who was watching him,

"Are you alright?" he asked her, she nodded,

"I'm just thankful you arrived when you did, if you hadn't interrupted it probably would have gotten a lot worse" she replied,

"What were you fighting about?" he asked knowing fully well what it was about and by Hermione's look she was aware of that as well,

"Don't pretend you didn't hear us Harry, heck Ron scared several birds off when he started raising his voice" she joked, Harry shifted uncomfortable, he really didn't like talking about the love life of his best friends,

"So is what you said true, I mean even I and a lot of others assumed you were hoping to date Ron, what with everything last year and" he finished not wanting to piss her off, surprisingly she smiled,

"I guess I could see why that's true Harry but no, I never wanted Ron, I still don't, he and I just are far too different for that kind of thing" she explained, Harry nodded,

"They do say opposites attract though and that you argue like an old married couple" he said as gently as possible,

"Ron and I are almost polar opposites though, we really have little to no common ground and tell me how many married couples do you know that argue?" she asked,

Harry thought for a second and realised he really hadn't seen any married couples argue at least not on the same par as Ron and Hermione's argument's, heck even though the Dursley's treated him as little more than a house maid he couldn't really recall them having a full blown fight,

"I guess I can't think of any, I just think everyone is expecting it" he replied, Hermione shrugged,

"I'm not going to date Ron just because everyone is expecting it, not only is that not fair to me, it isn't fair to Ron either" she replied, Harry again nodded in understanding,

"Anyway enough about my so called love life, how are you and Ginny doing?" Hermione asked, Harry looked at her in surprise for a moment,

"Ginny and I broke up" he said bluntly, Hermione was now the one to look surprised,

"When?" she asked,

"At Dumbledore's funeral...I thought you knew" Harry replied honestly, Hermione shook her head,

"Ginny hasn't mentioned it, why did you break up" she asked gently,

"Well...it's going to be dangerous and I doubt I'll have much free time when we start our...quest" he explained,

"Maybe not Harry I mean something like having a girlfriend could help you drive to succeed, having someone to come back too and all that" she explained, Harry however came back to the sentence that had been bugging him,

"I had thought of that but it would be wrong for many reasons" Harry replied, he wanted to say that he might not survive the war but he knew Hermione would have none of that so he kept it quiet,

"Plus...she said something that's been...bugging me" he said, Hermione urged him to continue,

"She said, she knew I wouldn't be happy unless I was off fighting Riddle" Hermione looked quite shocked at this,

"Well I have to say that's surprising, I mean anyone who knows you knows that's the last thing you want" she replied, Harry smiled gratefully at her, she really did know him well,

"Yeah well I need to focus on the task at hand before anything else", Hermione looked gently took his hand and lead him off towards the tent again,

"Have you given any thought as to what to do after the wedding?" she asked, he nodded before looking around for wandering ears,

"I think first thing we need to do is head to Grimmuald, we won't be able to talk about the quest around here especially with Mrs Weasley and all the others, Hermione nodded in agreement,

The two stood there in silence for a few moments just enjoying the gentle summer breeze, Harry figured he might as well get his talk with Hermione out of his system,

"Hermione if I ask you about something that might get you angry will you at least hear me out until the end"? He asked her, Hermione looked at him, Harry could see in her eyes that she was nervous and watched as she awkwardly crossed he arms on her chest,

"Of course Harry" she finally replied, Harry took a breath wondering if she might slap him in the end,

"Hermione...last year you and I...we...well we both did a lot of things wrong, no offence Hermione but you didn't trust me when I needed you and...well I need to know that I can trust you to trust me when we head of on our little hunt" he finished, He finished and braced himself for the backlash but surprisingly it never came, looking at his friends face he could tell she was a little red from embarrassment and anger but not nearly as much as he thought would be there,

"I...I am sorry Harry...and I think I may have an explanation for my behaviour last year but I won't make excuses and I don't think I should talk about it around here...you are my best friend and I promise if don't agree with you I won't just walk away like I did last term, I swear I'll be with you until the end" she proclaimed her voice filled with passion the more she carried on, Harry had never really been one to initiate hugs before so it surprised Hermione when he wrapped his arms around her and drew her into an embrace, she allowed herself to nuzzle her head into his neck a little a genuine smile gracing her lips feeling herself for the first time in a long time.

**Ooo~ooO**

Ron stormed back into the Burrow his anger rising to no bounds, he stormed into his sister's room to find her looking out of the window, she turned to him a look of agitation on her face,

"Do you not know how to knock" she spat at her brother, who completely ignored her,

"She said I wasn't her boyfriend Ginny, why are the potions not working any more?, she was nearly mine!" he yelled at her, Ginny however brushed him off,

"You forget she's been at home for over two weeks, the potion will have worn off by now" Ginny explained, Ron stomped the floor in a childish manner,

"But what about the potion she was given yesterday and this morning?" he whined,

"Give it time, I'm sure in a day or two she'll fall under it again", Ron sighed and looked out of the window, he could see Harry and Hermione still talking in the distance, a surge of jealousy arose in him,

"I hoped the soup might have worked on Harry but I should have figured it was going to take a while" she said, Ron didn't know whether she was talking to him or just speaking out loud,

"Whatever, I'm going to see if there's anything to eat" He said walking off, Ginny turned back to the view and felt a huge surge of anger as Harry hugged Hermione,

_"Hands off him you bitch...no calm down Ginny he'll__ be mine again in time...I just need to be patient"._

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry couldn't understand why but for some reason he couldn't shift the fact that something felt incredible wrong, Yesterday had been very little fun as everyone was too busy and Ron seemed to be in a constant mood all day, Thankfully the twins as always kept things light-hearted,

The morning after hadn't been much better, Mrs Weasley had been on the verge of a breakdown and almost knocked the twins out cold when they wouldn't stop ranking, Ron was still moody but was now paying little attention to anybody, Ginny kept giving Harry longing looks which Harry had to admit he was enjoying but the thing that bothered Harry was the looks that Hermione kept giving him, It seemed like she wanted to talk to him about something but was in two minds about it, Harry pondered whether it was about the quest or the other thing she had mentioned either way he would ask her later tonight at Grimmuald, Everyone at the Burrow was in a flux and running on high emotions, amazingly the calmest guy was the Groom who was chatting to his best man and brother Charlie,

"Hey Harry, you got your dress robes ready?" Bill asked the younger man,

"Yeah there upstairs, I'll get changed soon, how are you Bill, I hear guys are usually nervous on their wedding days" Harry asked intrigued at Bill calmness, Bill simply shrugged,

"What's to be nervous about, I'm marrying the women I love, nothing has ever felt so right before" He replied truthfully,

Charlie laughed, "Well if I had a girl like Fleur I'd be sweating so much I'd need a towel",

"What time is Fleur suppose to arrive anyway?" Harry asked, Bill looked up,

"Why hoping to steal my fiancée Buddy?" he joked, Harry smiled but did blush a little,

"And risk angering a curse-breaker...no I'm good" Harry joked back, all three men smiled at the playful nature when a loud bang ran through the house,

"FRED!, GEORGE!" shrieked Molly Weasley, Bill shook his head, "I'm amazed mum hasn't killed those two yet.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry had been slightly disappointed with the wedding, it hadn't been all that different to the one's he had seen on TV, still it had had it's moments, he watched as Ginny strutted down the isle wearing a shiny gold one strapped dress that Harry had to admit she looked very sexy in, he carried on watching until Hermione came to sit besides him, His jaw almost dropped as he took in her appearance,

It appeared periwinkle blue wasn't the only colour that suited her, she was wearing simple pink strapless dress and had her head up much like she had at the Yule ball, she smiled at him as she sat down next to him, Harry smiled back but he could swear he forgot how to breath for a few seconds,

Despite the beautiful site that sat next to him Harry did managed to watch some of the wedding ceremony take place, Harry was willing to admit that Fleur did look very beautiful in her wedding dress,

Looking around him, he could see various relatives of both Bride and Groom, with hankies in their hands whilst crying, many kids looking absolutely bored out of their heads, he looked over at the Weasley's who were sat in the front row,

Mrs Weasley sat bawling her eyes out whilst Mr Weasley had his arm around her with a look of pride on his face, Fred and George looked bored but stayed quiet for a change, Ron however was looking completely dazed and stoned in Harry's opinion, he reminded Harry of all the times he had seen Dudley when he was still stoned up,

Harry shook his head at his best mate, after a while the Bride and Groom kissed and the party was up and running,

After several hours of talking with certain people, Tonks came over and demanded that dance, Harry lowered his head in shyness but gave in and was reluctant to admit having a fun time until the dance ended and many other young girls and to his horror one or two guys were wanting to dance with him,

Ginny kept glancing over at him all afternoon and evening and Harry was soon getting anxious, Bill and Fleur would soon be leaving and he needed to get Ron and Hermione and leave, eventually Ginny began making her way towards him when a hand suddenly pulled him to the dance floor, Hermione smiled gently at him and mouthed 'Dance with me', Harry gulped but proceeded to dance one of the slower songs with her,

"Are you packed?" she asked quietly, Harry looked around but realised that people were completely interested in them save Ginny who was seething,

"I'm ready and packed, my trunks in my pocket, what about you?" he asked,

"Been ready since yesterday, mines in my coat pocket, what about Ron?" she asked, Harry looked over at his best mate who was currently downing another firewiskey and getting even more drunk, something told Harry Ron probably hadn't packed and was probably going to have to be carried out of here tonight,

"I don't think he has yet" he said apologetically, not really knowing why he was apologizing for Ron,

"I'll make an excuse to leave for a few minutes and pack his stuff in a little while" she said, Harry felt very thankful that his best friends mind was still on the task at hand, he looked down into her lovely chocolate brown eyes, they seemed almost sorrowful as she spoke,

"Harry when we get to Grimmuald I need to talk to you about something" she said,

"What you mean...our...little quest thing?" he inquired, she shook her head,

"No, something else but it's pretty important" she said her eyes speaking volumes, he nodded,

"No problem" he replied, the song ended not long after that much to Harry's dislike, Hermione true to her word made up an excuse and was soon gone for a while,

Eventually night fell on the Burrow and more people had gotten too much to drink, Harry had one but knew he needed to stay alert and ready to leave he could celebrate when the war was over, Ron however looked close to tipping over,

Suddenly he was dragged out on the dance floor again this time by Ginny, Harry felt very uncomfortable but went along with it, Ginny pushed herself up to him so much it was practically penetration,

Harry however couldn't resist the temptation to look down and got an eye full of cleavage, Ginny was well aware what he was doing and lifted her head, Harry suddenly couldn't think straight and leaned down, their lips brushed for a second until a loud crash behind them broke them apart, Ron had passed out sat down with a broken plate laying in front of the table,

Ginny sighed in frustration but suddenly walked away, Harry however was unsure what had just happened, he had nearly kissed his ex, he went and sat down next to Hermione who was sipping water, He felt the heat in his cheeks rise again,

"_What the hell is going on...One minute I'm lusting after Ginny the next Hermione...__**Well their both attractive girls...**__I've never had this much hassle with my hormones before...__**Could be the way their both dressed...**__Oh thank god I'm getting out of here tonight"_

**Ooo~ooO**

Shortly later Bill and Fleur said their goodbyes before leaving on their honeymoon, it was obvious Ginny wanted another dance but Harry noticed Hermione kept coming up for reasons for him not to dance, eventually the red head gave up,

Hermione caught his attention again,

"Mrs Weasley's chatting with some women, Remus and Tonks have left and everyone else who might stop us is either drunk silly or not paying attention, now is our best chance" she said in a hushed voiced,

"What about Ron?" he asked, the twins had taken the boy into the house and practically threw him onto the sofa,

"We'll have to carry him out of sight, I'll have to apparate him to Grimmuald place and then come back for you" she planned,

"I could take both me and Ron" Harry suggested, Hermione looked uncertain,

"Harry you don't have your license" she explained, Harry smiled gently,

"Since when has breaking the rules ever stopped us before?" he said a cocky smile breaking out, she smiled back,

"It's pretty far Harry can you managed both you and Ron?"

"I managed both myself and Dumbledore and that was much further from here to Grimmuald" he explained, Hermione conceded that point, eventually she relented,

"Okay but we need to be fast about this" the two walked briskly back to the Burrow and found Ron still snoring away, there were a couple of people still in the kitchen but no one in the living room, throwing Ron over his shoulders, he carried the drunk boy outside and behind Mr Weasley's shed,

Hermione looked at him,

"You ready?" she asked, he nodded,

"I'll see you in moment then" she said before disappearing, Harry let out a breath and looked around him making sure no one was watching,

"_I guess this is the start of our quest...and one of us is completely pissed...wonderful start"_.

**ooO~Ooo**

**Authors Notes:  
**

**Okay I have a lot to say so I apologise in advance for the legnth of all this.**

**First off I didn't want to have Riddle and the Death Eaters attack the wedding, it just wouldn't fit into my story.**

**Secondly before anyone gets on my ass, I don't hate Ginny, I don't think shes a good fit for Harry and her character is very underdeveloped in canon, I have plans to make her a much nicer character in the sequels but for now bitch ahoy.**

**Also someone pointed out in a review that I completely forgot about Harry's birthday, this was a huge error on my part but once again that was because it plays no part in this story, I might put a small paragraph or something into a future chapter but that will be about it, and to be honest with the acknowledged return of Voldmort I don't think the Ministry would care too much about underage magic at the moment.**

**Also I ask everyone please PLEASE, don't be expecting too much from this fic, I think a lot of you are expecting something a lot better than within my ability with writing, There will be plotholes and there will be errors and I just ask that you enjoy the story for what it is.**

With that being said I hope you all are enjoying the story so far and I'll have chapter 3 up next sunday.

**If you have any questions feel free to ask in a review or you can PM me.**

**Bye for now.**


	3. Chapter III

**Chapter III**

**Revelations at Grimmuald Place**

**Disclaimer:** **Let me check my pockets...no I still don't own Harry Potter.**

**Author's Note:**** Please forgive any spelling errors, every time I try to use spellchecker my computer keeps freezing.**

Harry looked around a sad picture upon his face, he hadn't been here since before the death of his Godfather and it reflected in his eyes, he tried his hardest to keep a neutral look on his face but it was extremely hard for him,

Arriving at the house the first thing they had done was place Ron onto one of the beds before both he and Hermione chose their own rooms and Hermione enlarging their trunks, Harry changed out of his dress robes into a comfortable T-shirt and a pair of shorts, he had planned to head to bed when a gentle knock at the door spur him from his sleep, he opened it to find Hermione looking at him eagerly, Harry mentally slapped his head,

"Oh right, sorry Hermione I forgot you wanted to talk" he apologised, Hermione looked unsure,

"Harry I'm sorry to cut into your sleep but I doubt this can wait until the morning, I need to speak with you whilst Ron can't hear us" she replied, Harry was now intrigued, he jested for Hermione to enter his room, he took in her appearance, her hair was now down but it still looked nice, her nighty was a simple light silver and hung loose but Harry thought it looked very nice on her,

"Okay what's up Hermione, you've looked like you've wanted to talk to me all day, what's going on?" he asked now intrigued, Hermione appeared to be very nervous, and started playing with her hands,

"Could we maybe sit down Harry?" she asked, Harry was starting to get a little anxious, he nodded however and pulled her towards his bed, he watched as she let out a long breath and sighed,

"When I was at home...I began researching spells and whatnot that could help us on the Horcrux hunt" she began, Harry smiled gently at her, it was just like her to always be there helping him, she however didn't return the smile,

"Well...eventually I came across a revealing spell, it can help show hidden enchantments and...potions...that type of stuff" she explained, Harry wasn't sure where she was going with this but he noticed she was starting to shake a little,

"Hey are you alright?" he asked gently taking her hand, she nodded and her shaking calmed at his touch but it didn't stop,

"Well...I kept practising the spell until I mastered it...and...I found something" she said, Harry could see tears behind her eyes,

"Hermione what did you find?" he asked her,

"I...I...performed the spell on...myself...I started to glow a...dark pink colour" she explained, Harry was unsure what that meant,

"So what does that mean Hermione?" he asked tentatively,

"It means...I tested positive...for...for a...love potion" she finished, Harry's eyes widened, his best friend had been given a love potion, Harry was unaware his mouth was hanging open,

"How...I mean are you certain" he asked, Hermione coughed a little before tears were now rolling down her face,

"Yes...I can even tell you what potion and who it was keyed to" she replied, harry took hold of both of her hands,

"Hermione who was it?" Hermione looked at him before she pulled out her wand,

"I Hermione Jane Granger swear on my magic that everything I about to divulge to harry James Potter is truthful and factual to the best of my knowledge so I swear so mote be it" she said as a white light surrounded her for a moment as the oath took effect,

"Hermione why did you do that?, you know I'll believe you" he cried, Hermione shook her head,

"To be quite honest Harry, I don't think you'll believe me without the oath" she replied, Harry didn't know what to think, didn't Hermione trust him enough even after there talk the other day, He decided to give her the benefit of the doubt for now,

"Okay...what and who was it Hermione?" he asked a little more firmly, she looked at him one more time,

"It was Amortentia and I was keyed...to Ron" she replied sadly, Harry however was suddenly wide eyed,

"No...Ron wouldn't do that Hermione" he started in his usually state of defending Ron,

"I don't know who gave it to me Harry...I just know who it was keyed to" she explained, Harry got up and started pacing, Someone had poisoned his best friend to fall for his best mate, Harry didn't want to believe for one second Ron would have done this, but that brought up the question who did,

"How long were you under it Hermione?" he asked, Hermione looked like she didn't want to answer but after sighing she did,

"I had myself checked for longevity as well and...it appears I was under it for quite a while...almost...two years" she said, Harry did the math, it was was nearly two years ago then it meant it had to be while she was at Grimmuald place, that cut down the suspects considerably,

"Are you sure of the time period Hermione?" he asked in despair, she nodded,

"It's not accurate to the exact date but it's only a couple days out either way, still it doesn't matter I was here all that summer Harry it had to be someone in the house" she explained,

Harry looked at her in distress,

"Maybe it was that slimy cunt Snape" he thought suddenly, "I mean he is a potions expert" Harry asked hoping he was right, not only would it clear Ron it gave him another reason to hate the bastard,

"It's a possibility Harry but what would he have to gain?" she asked, Harry couldn't answer that, Snape really didn't have anything to gain from doing that,

"Hermione...it can't be Ron" he wined, Hermione however was now looking slightly pissed at him,

"I doubt Ron made the actual potion Harry as you and I both know just how abysmal his potion making ability is, which means it has to be someone with at least decent skills at it, Ron may have not brewed it but that doesn't mean he didn't know" she cried,

"Hermione this is Ron we're talking about!" he he retorted, Hermione however was relenting,

"Yes Harry this is Ron we're talking about, the same boy who gets insanely jealous at you, the same boy who constantly belittle me and everything I believe in, the boy who makes me miserable more than anyone, the one who wants everything in life given to him on a platter...so tell me Harry why can't Ron be involved?" she asked anger seeping through her voice, Harry however wasn't relenting,

"Because he's our best friend Hermione" he said as if that solved everything, Hermione to his surprise scoffed,

"No Harry, he's your best friend, my only best friend is you, for the longest time I only put up with the prat because he was your best mate and it seems over the last year an a half or so t was a sodding potion that made me put up with him" she replied, harry scratched his head,

"What are you talking about, you guys spend time without me" he said,

"Either arguing or in complete silence because we have little or nothing to say to each other" she finished, Harry was completely bewildered, it appeared Hermione was in little doubt about Ron's guilt, and it appeared that his best friends were only friends because of him, Harry rubbed his head in frustration, however it appeared that Hermione wasn't finished,

"Harry please remember the oath I took, if I was lying I would lose my magic, anyway that's only part of the reason I'm here" she said, Harry turned back to her and watched her pull a small vial out of her breast pocket that had clear liquid inside,

"Harry this is a flushing potion, it will clear you system of any potion that is in your body, I took one about a week ago" she said, Harry looked at the small vial,

"If you've already taken one Hermione then why do you have this one?" he asked her,

"Because...I think you might be under the same potion I was" she said gently, Harry mouth sat open again,

"Hermione I'm not under a bloody potion" he snapped, Hermione locked eyes with him,

"If your that sure then you won't mind drinking the vial then will you?" She challenged, Harry wished he had just ignored her and gone to bed earlier,

"Hermione just let it lie, I'm not under a spell or potion or whatever" he said as calmly as possible, Hermione however wasn't backing down,

"Harry do you trust me?" she asked now standing up and slowly walking towards him, Harry couldn't look at her, yes he trusted her but if he took the potion and he tested positive it meant there was a very good chance his best mate had been playing with him,

"Harry...please drink it" she begged him, Harry made the mistake of looking into her eyes and could see the tears appearing again, he held out his hand and shakily too the vial,

"What will happen...if I'm...you know?" he asked, Hermione chocked back a sob,

"If your not then nothing will happen, it'll simply pass through you system in the morning as with anything you've drank tonight, however...if there is something there you'll start throwing up" she explained, he was about to to drink the vial when Hermione stopped him,

"Harry I could perform the charm right now and find out, you don't have to do it this way" she said gently, Harry shook his head, he took a deep breath before knocking back the vial quickly,

He waited for a moment until nothing happened, he was happily relieved but Hermione was shocked and somewhat saddened, that was until Harry suddenly felt the bile rise in his body into his mouth, he only just closed his mouth in time, he quickly dashed towards the nearest bathroom unaware that Hermione was following him, He managed to reach the toilet and was now on his knees over the seat throwing up quite a lot of liquid which was burning his throat, after finishing he suddenly noticed a dark pink glow surrounding his body, he turned around to see Hermione pointing her wand at him a look of sorrow on her face,

Harry remembered the vow and what all this suddenly meant, with a look of pure despair he locked eyes with her,

"Hermione what do we do now?" he asked her, she shook her head slightly,

"I don't know Harry...I just don't know"

**Ooo~ooO**

The following day arrived to much misery and dread, both Harry and Hermione were on high alert around Ron, Hermione was in no doubt he was guilty but Harry still wasn't willing to fully believe it, finding a love potion on him tide to Ginny had come as quite a shock but thankfully the girl wasn't there at the moment and Harry was now watching everything he ate and drank that Ron gave him,

The first thing they did was send a letter off to certain people like the Weasley family and members of the order to not try and find them and not to contact them, Hermione had also placed up a couple of wards on top of everything surrounding the ancient home,

Ron thankfully had stayed away from the both of them as he was dealing with a massive hangover and he was still peeved at Hermione for turning him down, Hermione however could barley manage to keep the look of pure hatred off her face and Harry couldn't help but worry something would explode,

Around dinnertime however he realised something was going to have to be done, He pulled Hermione aside whilst Ron scoffed down a pile of food to make up for the hole in his stomach,

Harry pulled her into the library as it was the last place Ron might look should he finish too soon,

"Hermione what are we going to do, it's been less than a day and you could already cut the tension with a knife" he said, Hermione softened her look but it appeared to have a plan in mind already,

"I think we need to find out the truth, more than anything right now, Ron could either be a pawn or he could have a deeper role in this, plus Harry we need to know who had you dosed up on Amortentia, we know it was tide to Ginny but we don't know who gave it too you" she explained, Harry's face saddened, Hermione pulled him into a quick hug,

"How are you coping with that by the way?" she asked gently, Harry shrugged,

"I'm not sure yet, looking back I was never interested in Ginny until the beginning of sixth year, hell we even spent time at the Burrow that summer before and I still wasn't interested in her at that time...I'm not sure Hermione, how should I feel knowing my feelings have been manipulated?" he asked,

"Well personally I went from shock to pure rage pretty quickly, to be honest I'm surprised we were able to fight it as long as we did" she replied, Harry nodded in agreement,

"I'm guessing you have a plan?" Harry asked her, she nodded,

"It's actually tied in a little with a hunt, let's face it Harry we are going to need help, I know Dumbledore said not to tell anyone what we were doing so...and I can't believe I'm suggesting this but...perhaps we should get help from someone who won't ask what we're doing" she said, Harry scrunched up his face in confusion, Harry couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't ask at least a few,

"Sorry Hermione but I'm drawing a blank" he replied truthfully,

"I suggest we...hire Dobby" she said distaste laced in her voice, Harry looked surprised, he was well aware of Hermione's dislike of using House-elf's, for her to put her distaste aside meant a lot to him and now he thought about it, it wasn't actually a bad idea, Dobby could be really helpful, plus he was always wanting to help Harry out,

"Okay that's a really good idea...but I don't understand, how can Dobby help us with our potion problem?" he asked,

"We get him to go find us some...Veritaserum", harry was fully aware of what it was,

"Hermione...truth serum, really?, I mean even if we do give it to Ron he'll remember afterwards" he questioned, Hermione shook her head,

"Not if we...Obliviate him afterwards" she replied, Harry hated this idea, it meant giving no trust to Ron but after last night his trust had withered a decent amount already,

"What if...we do all this and Ron's innocent?" harry asked uncertainly, Hermione shrugged,

"Well...we'll just have to make it up to him, I don't know...should we ever go back to Hogwarts I'll do his homework for a week or something" she offered, Harry chuckled a little before turning serious again,

"Okay I'll call Dobby...here's hoping him and Kreacher don't cross paths" harry joked.

**Ooo~ooO**

Dobby unsurprisingly had been more than happy to work for Harry, plus the little guy had managed to bring some Veritaserum from Hogwarts that Snape had left behind, Harry couldn't help but feel nervous, he was soon going to find out if his best friend was manipulating him or if the boy had been used as a pawn in someone else's scheme,

The rest of day the day crawled by at a snails pace, Harry watched as Hermione sat at the kitchen table nibbling toast whilst pretending to read the book in hand, he glanced over at Ron who was again scoffing down his food whilst warm butter dribbled down his chin and onto his shirt,

His eyes met Hermione's and she gave him a small nod, at a speed that impressed even Harry she suddenly whipped out her wand,

"_**Pertrificus Totalis!"**_she cried, Ron suddenly snapped in place and fell off the chair, Hermione quickly went over to the fallen red head followed by Harry, Ron's eyes locked with them, Rage emitted as well as bewilderment,

"Okay here we go" she said opening the vial before opening Ron's mouth a tipping a small amount of the fluid into Ron's mouth, whilst you couldn't talk when under the Totalis charm, you could swallow, Ron seemed to not want to swallow it but in the end he couldn't stop the potion as it trickled down his throat,

It took barley a second before Ron's eye's glazed over, Hermione once again pointed her wand at Ron,

"_**Finite" **_she cast, Ron's limbs, unsnapped and between the two of them got the red head into a chair and bound by magical ropes, Hermione cleared her voice,

"What is your name?" she asked,

"Ronald Billius Weasley" Ron answered in monotone,

"What happened in third year when you and I went to Hogsmeade that you asked me never to mention again?" Hermione asked, Harry look puzzled at this,

"I walked face first into a spider web and wet my trousers" Ron once again replied, no emotion in his voice, harry eyes went comically wide and snickered,

"Hermione why ask that?" Harry questioned her,

"I need to make sure he's actually under the potion, asking his name and birth day wouldn't really tell us" she explained, Harry nodded,

"I found out I'm under a love potion keyed to you...did you know anything about it?" she asked her face completely impassive,

"Yes" Ron answered, sealing his fate at least to Hermione, Harry was shocked, it was one thing to suspect but another to actually discover the truth,

"Were you the one making the potion?" she carried on,

"No" Ron replied, Hermione rubbed her face in frustration, it looked like she would have to ask more direct questions,

"Who did make it?"

"My Mum" Ron once again replied, Harry felt his heart sink, Mrs Weasley, his surrogate mother had been dosing his best friend with love potion, Hermione however wasn't finished,

"Harry's under a love potion keyed to your sister, did you know about that?"

"Yes"

"Was you mother also responsible for that potion?"

"Yes"

"Was Ginny aware of this"

"Yes", Hermione looked over at Harry who looked grief stricken, she couldn't blame him, his ties to the Weasley's were huge, he loved them as if they were actual family, he hated hurting him like this but she still needed some questions answered,

"Why?" she asked, Ron however didn't reply, Hermione figured he didn't really understand what she was asking,

"Why did you dose me with love potion Ron?" she asked trying to keep her voice calm whilst all the while inside she wanted to nothing more than kill the prick,

"Because I wanted you" he replied, Hermione rolled her eyes,

"Why Ron, we don't get along, we have nothing in common, and you dated Lavender last year anyway?" she asked,

"I wanted the one thing that had always stood by Harry, and you not bad looking either our kids would be pretty powerful as well and I dated Lavender to make you jealous", Harry looked back at Ron when he heard his name,

"_Ron only wants Hermione because of what she means to me?" _

"Why would you only want Hermione because of me Ron?" he asked aloud,

"I'm sick of you always getting everything, you have money and fame, but you never like standing out so I never get to stand in the spotlight, I wanted to prove I could beat you by taking the one thing that has never left you" Ron replied in monotone voice cutting through Harry's soul, Hermione had a few tears in her eyes but was unwilling to let them drop,

"What about Ginny and your Mum Ron, why did they do this?" Hermione asked,

"Ginny wants her hero like mum always said she would get, Mum wants to make Ginny and I happy" Ron spoke, Harry was starting to feel sick, Hermione looked at him sorrow in her eyes,

"Harry I'm sorry but I have to ask him" she said, Harry wondered what she meant until she asked the question,

"We're we ever your friends Ron?" she asked,

"I liked Harry when I met him, I'd never met a celebrity before so it was cool back then, but during second year it got boring, you I never considered a friend, your boring" Ron replied, Harry could not believe this, Ron didn't give a damn about him,

"What about all those times you defended Hermione from Malfoy or the other Slytherin's" Harry asked,

"I hate Malfoy and Slytherins" he answered simply, harry looked shocked, all those time Ron had stuck up for both him and Hermione were simply because he hated the snake house,

"What about all those adventures, the stone, the Basilisk, the Ministry fight?" Hermione questioned,

"Mum told me to stick to Harry like glue, first year I wanted to take part in adventure and earn some fame but it was kept quite, Ginny was in the chamber and I'm under family oath to protect my family, after I had enough in fourth year mum was adamant that I never leave Harry's side again" Ron explained,

Harry swallowed the bile that had risen up in his throat, his entire world felt like it was crashing apart, he was awakened from his dark thoughts however by Hermione,

"_**Stupefy!" **_she yelled, the red beam hit Ron obliterating the chair he was sat on as well, Ron laid unconscious on the floor, Harry looked at Hermione and so her heavy breathing, her face red with anger, He dashed over to her and drew her into a hug, he felt her shake and his shirt dampen as her tears were now letting loose, Harry had no idea what to do from here on out,

After a few minutes of calming down Hermione and gathering his own thoughts, the two started talking again,

"Where do we go from here Hermione, I mean if this is true, then Ron isn't really our friend is he, can we really trust him with the hunt?" he asked,

"As much as I would love to send the...bastard back to his mother, we can't, he knows about the Horcruxes, plus everyone knows he'd you best mate, Voldemort will come after him if he's not with us and then the game is pretty much over, Riddle will just move his Horcruxes or something" she retorted, harry sighed unsure of what to do,

"Couldn't we just obliviate the knowledge from his mind along with the interrogation?" Harry wondered, Hermione shook her head,

"No, Memories can be recovered, it can happen over time but Riddle will simply force them out and it will probably kill Ron, either way he'll still know that we're hunting his soul pieces" she replied,

"Sadly I think we have to keep him with us, this way we won't draw attention to ourselves and he'll still go ahead with the plan to dose us again" she finished,

"Okay, do you want to do it or should I?" he asked her,

"I'll do it" she said pulling out her wand, she pointed her wand at Ron a look of distaste upon her face,

"_**Enervate!"**_

Ron stirred and locked eyes with Hermione, before he could open his mouth however he was hit with a second spell,

"_**Obliviate!"**_

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry couldn't believe how the last two days had gone, in that small amount of time his entire world had been torn apart, The Weasley's had been using him, his best mate didn't care about him or the girl it seemed he liked, Harry wanted nothing more than to go to bed and fall asleep,

However entering his room he saw what could only be described as a tug of war going on between Dobby and Kreacher,

"No gives that's back bad elf!" Dobby screeched,

"It be my master's, filthy half blood doesn't deserve to touch it" Kreacher spat back,

"Don't talks about master Harry like that!"

"Gives it to me!"

"No!"

"Stop it both of you!" harry shouted, both elves stopped there argument, Harry could see they both had a tight grasp on the fake locket he kept in his room,

"What are you both doing with that?" he asked still a little heatedly,

"Bad elf try sneaking away with locket master Harry, Dobby caught him" Dobby answered, Harry looked at Kreacher who wasn't denying it,

"Why on earth do you want it Kreacher, it isn't a Black family item" harry asked, Kreacher shook his head,

"It be same as other one, Master Regulus be making fake locket, Kreacher not be seeing it in many years, Kreacher wishes to have it in remembering young master" Kreacher explained, harry suddenly felt his adrenaline start flowing, he swallowed a huge intake of air,

"Kreacher...what was Regulus's full name?" he asked,

"Regulus Arcturus Black master Half blood" Kreacher replied in disdain, harry however didn't care about the elf's tone,

"Kreacher I'll make you a deal, I'll trade you this one you Master made for the other one" Harry said, Kreacher looked unwilling to trust Harry but the chance to have something his young master made, helped make the elf's mind up,

"Very well Master" Kreacher said has he disappeared momentarily before reappearing with an identical locket, and handing it to Harry, Harry looked at it as if it was pure gold,

"_R.A.B...I finally found you"_

**Ooo~ooO**

Hermione found herself giving a huge sigh both of relief and worry, on the one hand she now knew one hundred percent that her feelings for the red headed prick hadn't been her own, on the other hand she still had one unanswered question, she had yet to tell Harry this yet but the love potion hadn't been the only thing that she had found on herself, but several compulsion's had been placed on her too, unlike the potion however spells didn't reveal anything as to who cast them and while she had suspects she didn't have anything solid yet, she pulled her top over her head when her door suddenly burst open revealing an excited looking Harry who's face quickly turned beet red at seeing his friend in just her bra and panties,

"Harry what the hell!" she cried before quickly covering herself with the blanket, Harry averted his eyes blood rushing to his southern region, he did manage to recover and remember why he was there,

"Hermione I'm sorry I didn't mean to just...you know barge in but I have great news" He glanced for a moment and saw she now had her shirt back on and almost had her jeans back up, she still looked peeved and glared at him, Harry's thoughts once again involuntarily transitioned to what he had seen just seconds ago under her shirt,

"Well?" Hermione asked her glare not giving an inch, Harry pulled himself out of his mental image and opened his fist revealing the locket,

"Guess what was here the whole time" he replied, Hermione's eyes resembled frying pans, she suddenly found her throat dry, taking a moment to gather herself she finally replied to him,

"Please tell me that's the real one and not the fake", she watched as Harry nodded his head a small smile appearing, her smile couldn't be contained and she suddenly lunged at him giving him a huge hug of happiness, the two swayed happily for a few moments,

"One more down already, you know what this means, only four left" Harry replied glee laced in his voice, he locked eyes with Hermione who he now noticed had a more serious look on her face,

"Hermione what's wrong, we found another Horcrux, I thought you'd be pleased" he stated, Hermione looked at him a sad smile on her face,

"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we've got another one but now I've just figured out another problem we have" Hermione replied to him, Harry tried to see what was the issue but he was coming up with nothing that could be that bad,

"What is Hermione because I'm drawing a blank?" he asked, She looked back down at the Horcrux in his hand,

"How do we destroy it?", Harry felt the elation leave his body immediately, only two words came to his mind

"_Oh shit"_

**Ooo~ooO**

**Author's Notes:**

**Okay, again I have a lot to say but first let me address something.**

**Guys if you ask me a question in a review please remember to sign in before otherwise I can't respond to your questions personally, just this once I'll answer the questions here:**

**beyondthesea16 – I still have plans for Distorted Fate but at the moment I'm more interested in doing this, rest assured DF is not abandoned.**

**Taz – Obviously with this chapter yes, I'm also currently in the middle of chapter 6 so the weekly updates will carry on for a little while longer at least.**

**Anyway I want to express my thoughts on something regarding fanics, I've always thought it weird when I read a H/Hr story and they have Hermione be the one who's constantly sticking up for and trusting the Weasley's when in canon that tends to be Harry, I honestly feel Harry would be the one with the harder time accepting the betrayal of them than Hermione would.**

**Obviously Harry sees them as a surrogate family since he doesn't have one but when people have Hermione react as bad or even worse always bewilderes me, Hermione has a family, even if we don't get to see them, she does have them and to be honest I've never felt she had that much of a bond to any of them.**

**I should point out I don't think my potrayal of Hermione in this chapter is really out of character, I honestly believe had Hermione discovered something like this she would have reacted in a similar manor, well before the Half Baked Plot anyway.**

Next chapter though she will be acting a little out of character so just be warned, I'm trying not to change either of them too much for the time being.

**Sorry about this long notice but I had quite a bit to say and even now I'm cutting out a lot I've left unaddressed.**

**Again if you have any question feel free to ask me but please remember to sign in this time guys.**

**See you next week.**


	4. Chapter IV

**Chapter IV**

**Blowout**

**Disclaimer:**** Nope I still pee standing up which means I'm not JK Rowling and I don't own Harry Potter.**

Harry and Hermione had spent most of the night brainstorming about how to destroy the newly acquired horcrux, Harry watched as his female companion got more and more agitated as time went by, Harry himself was getting annoyed at the outcome, they had one of the items they had only just begun their journey searching for and yet neither had really come up with a way to destroy one.

"What about non magical means, maybe acid or explosives?" Hermione offered, Harry pondered this for a moment but in all honesty didn't think it would work, he suspected Riddle might have protected the items against such means,

"Unlikely to work but definitely something we should keep in mind" he replied, the two sat in silence once again when Hermione spoke up,

"What about the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets?" she inquired, Harry sighed and again began to think, The creature had entered his mind but it would mean having to enter Hogwarts again and whilst that wasn't really a bad thing sneaking in there even with the invisibility cloak was tricky,

"Yeah that idea entered my mind as well but wouldn't the corpse have rotted away by now?" Harry asked honestly interested, to his surprise Hermione shook her head,

"No Basilisk skin and teeth can last up to a decade before decomposition begins to show, it may have been over four years but it should still be good enough to use" she explained, Harry looked away for a moment letting the idea run through his mind,

"We would have to sneak in to Hogwarts which might be easier said than done" he turned to her and caught her biting her lip, he knew this face it meant she wanted to tell him something she didn't think he would like,

"What's wrong Hermione?" he asked wearily, she didn't say anything for a moment but then gathered her courage,

"Harry are we doing the right thing here?" she asked shyly, Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion,

"What do you mean?" he asked,

"Well...the three of us...or I suppose the two of us, wouldn't it be better if we got help from some other people?" she asked nervously, Harry felt irritated but kept calm, he had been expecting this question for a while,

"Hermione, Dumbledore said to only tell you and Ron as the information was too important" Hermione huffed,

"Yes Harry I'm well aware of that and yet look how Ron has betrayed us, this just proves that as great as Dumbledore was he made mistakes and errors in judgment, what if this is another mistake of his"

"Hermione, no we are not getting anyone else involved this is dangerous and if it wasn't for the fact that you won't let me do it alone I..."Hermione suddenly cut him off anger apparent in her voice,

"You think this is about you Harry, whilst I may be here to help my best friend and do what I can to make sure he lives I'm also doing this to protect people I care about and the innocent lives out there, but Harry I'm not stupid, the chances of us been able to do this alone aren't that great" Harry sighed feeling his own anger raise,

"Hermione Dumbledore said that..."

"SCREW DUMBLEDORE HARRY, we are on our own here, let's face it we may have found the horcrux today but we don't even know what three of the other four are, other than basilisk venom we have no idea how to destroy one and to top it off Harry how long do you think it's going to be until Voldemort comes out and takes over...and then what we'll be stuck on a damn treasure hunt whilst he's taking over the country!" she yelled, Hermione finally stopped and took several deep breaths regaining her composure, Harry however was feeling rather numb, everything she was saying was true, whilst he had planned out how to get away from everyone and start the hunt, he had no plan for the here and now, Dumbledore had given him no assistance in this area and Harry suddenly felt the full weight he had been ignoring of the task fall on him,

"Harry I'm begging you, please listen to me, I know you think doing this alone is the right thing to do but keeping secrets and not accepting help is what lead Dumbledore to his downfall, please don't take that path and please have some trust in my judgment for a change" she said softly, Harry turned to her and was about to retort that he did but locking eyes with her he saw the beginning of tears in her eyes and Harry suddenly stopped dead,

"_I do trust her how can she think I don't...__**Well if you had listened to her last summer Sirius would still be alive...**__But I tried the floo...__**You could have ridden the thestrals here and double checked...**__maybe but...__**and what about the Firebolt incident...**__she told McGonagall about it...__**because she wanted to protect you and you wouldn't listen to reason...**__but__**...and the duel first year, she wasn't even really a friend then but she had been right...**__I guess"_

Harry couldn't help but feel his stomach drop, did he really not listen to her when it mattered, looking back Harry always went with his gut feeling on something and most of the time it backfired badly and usually put him or someone else in danger, Hermione usually spoke against him but he wouldn't listen to reason and despite that she still helped him, without really registering what he was doing he got up and moved to the other sofa and drew the tear eyed young women into a hug, Hermione reacted surprised but soon embraced him back, Harry couldn't stop the voice in his head,

"_**She's right this isn't just you fight, you may be the one to deal the final blow but too many people have too much riding on this**__...but...__**NO, listen to Hermione this time"**_

Harry felt whatever anger was left quickly leave his body, he finally released Hermione who sat back down and stared up at him,

"Harry I'm sorry I didn't mean to yell at..."this time he cut her off,

"No, you're right...I need to accept that this isn't just about me, you also right that we need outside help other than Dobby" he replied a small smile appeared on her face making Harry feel much happier than he had a moment ago,

"Well Ms Granger I hand over leadership to you for now, please tell me you have an idea" he joked, Hermione small smile became a larger one,

"Don't I always?"

**ooO~Ooo**

Hermione laid in the bed she had claimed as her own for her stay at Grimmuald place failing in a halfhearted attempt at catching a little sleep, she had been up until after five in the morning with Harry with the Horcrux and then telling him her plan, she had been surprised that he had deferred to her and had gone against his own judgment but the plan was solid and he agreed it was a pretty good idea.

Hermione couldn't sleep for two reasons, one part of the plan involved contacting the order tomorrow for a meeting which was something neither she nor Harry were looking forward to but the second reason was her belief in Dumbledore had begun to wither and she was starting to question the man's plan and judgment,

When Harry had informed her of the private lessons he was going to receive last year Hermione had believed that the headmaster would be teaching him some advance spells or something, when Harry had explained what had really been going on however she had become confused,

She could understand learning as much as possible about one's enemy, learning their history and what may be able to throw them off their game, but where was the training, as powerful as Harry was for his age, Voldemort had over sixty years of magical training and knowledge at his exposule not to mention all of his lackeys had more experience than Harry,

Why had Dumbledore not prepared for the worse, had the man really not expected to die, Harry had told her his hand was the start of an infection that left him with little time remaining, Hermione felt her blood begin to boil, why hadn't he planned things better, he was suppose to be the great Albus Dumbledore after all, Hermione breathed a sigh as she tried to calm herself, after all if her plan worked well enough she might be able to get some answers eventually,

She tossed and turned still for the next fifth-teen minutes, eventually she saw the sun beginning to rise and gave up and decided to get dressed for the day.

**ooO~Ooo**

Harry sat in the arm chair dreading the upcoming arrival of the order members, a few hours earlier, he awoke to find Hermione already dressed and drink coffee whilst reading, after a quick talk the two had put together a letter to send to McGonagall requesting that she contact the other order members and then head towards Grimmuald place around noon, After that Harry got to work on a light breakfast of a few rashions of bacon whilst Hermione began altering the wards she had placed so the others could arrive,

Around ten Ron finally awoke and was handed his plate of bacon, Harry was intending to fill him in on the new plan when it appeared that Hermione had done the job for him,

"WHAT!" Ron bellowed, Harry quietly snuck up to the door to the kitchen,

"Like I just said, the new plan is to speak to the order today and if that goes well enough, we'll be returning to Hogwarts" Hermione replied back patiently, Harry opened the door slightly and almost laughed at how opened mouthed Ron was and watched as the red heads face turned a darker shade of red than his hair was,

"Your joking right, this is the most stupid thing I've ever heard!" he complained, Hermione huffed,

"Tell me Ron why is it so stupid?", The red head flayed his arms about in anger,

"Well everyone will know where we are...and...and..." he stopped unable to come up with another reason,

"Yes I'm aware that everyone will know where we are, the fact is Ronald we need help and us being there might help get more people to join our side" she replied, Ron glared at her,

"We don't need help, we never have before" he said crossing his arms,

"It was different before, Dumbledore kept Voldemort at bay, to be honest I'm surprised he hasn't been more active recently, we also have no clue where the soul anchors are or how to destroy them...face it Ron the idea that the three of us could do this alone was laughable" she explained, Ron however wasn't willing to budge,

"What about Harry, what does he say about this...plan of yous" he spat out,

"He agrees with me, we talked about..." Ron suddenly interrupted her,

"When did you guys have time to talk about this?" he asked suspiciously,

"During the night, neither of us could sleep so we talked about possible ideas" she answered, making sure not to bring up the newly discovered horcrux, she watched as his eyes narrowed at her,

"So what you guys just talked all night...alone?" he asked with a slight sneer, Hermione felt agitated, why didn't they just obliviate this git and send him packing,

"Yes and your point being?" she replied just as snarlingly, Ron's face went pure red,

"Well why didn't you wake me, I could helped" he spat back,

"_**Very doubtful"**_ she thought,

"Ron you were fast asleep, a meteor crash wouldn't have woken you up" she replied sarcastically, Ron flung his arms into the air,

"What the hell is a meat-e-o!" he yelled, Hermione placed her palm on her head almost certain she had just felt the blood vessels in her head burst,

"_**How can anyone be so stupid!?"**_

Hermione was saved from a tumor as Harry entered the kitchen,

Harry walked in seeing the distress Hermione was having, Ron seeing a new target instantly turned his attention to Harry,

"Harry is this true, did you and her spend the night coming up with a new plan together?" he asked rage still etched upon his face, Harry faced him,

"Yes Ron, Hermione came up with some good points that I couldn't rebuff, she right, returning to Hogwarts is the best idea for now", Ron looked at him if as if he had grown an extra head,

"But we..." Harry cut him off here,

"Look at it this way Ron, you don't have to worry about your family and I'm sure after the meeting tonight you mum would be happy to cook you a proper meal" Harry said hoping to calm down Ron for a moment, however

Ron's face suddenly went from bright red to sickly green quicker than a set of traffic lights,

"Oh shit, my mum's coming...she's going to kill me" he shivered for a moment before he finally flopped into a chair unable to deal with the fact that he would be getting a personal howler face to face very soon,

Hermione looked at Harry and smiled, if there was one upside to the meeting later it was the fact that Ron would be torn apart by his mother.

**ooO~Ooo**

To say Harry was nervous would be an understatement, right now bloody terrified would be a better way to put it, the Order was set to arrive in a few minutes and Harry was aware that the chance of a shouting match at some point was extremely high, he took a glance at his companions, Hermione sat in the arm chair reading a copy of Hogwarts A History, for her this was a way to calm herself and was a form of enjoyment, on Harry's right was Ron who was currently pale as a ghost and nervously clutching at his hands in an attempt to stop them from shaking,

Harry sighed, his plan was all in tatters now but thinking back there hadn't been much of a plan anyway, He had believed in Dumbledore too much and the former headmaster had been completely against anyone other that Hermione or Ron knowing about the horcrux's however Harry had no really idea what to do, his plan had originally been to buy a wizards tent and search the country gathering information on the soul anchors and try and avoid Riddle at all costs, looking back Harry had to admit it was a pretty lackluster plan but it was the best he could come up with.

His faith in the headmaster was very frail at this point as Hermione had pointed out many errors that Dumbledore had made and Harry could see a few cracks appear of his own however before he could allow his mind to wander any further a familiar red-headed chubby women appeared at the fireplace with a look of thunder upon her face.

_"Well, best get this over with"_

**ooO~Ooo**

The Dark lord Voldemort currently sat upon his 'throne' within the Malfoy mansion, it had been a long time but for the first time in a while Thomas Riddle was actually filled with glee, his biggest hurdle Albus Dumbledore had been taken care of and whilst he would rather have been the one to make it happen he had forgiven Severus this folly and had looked on the brighter side, There was nothing now that could stop him, without the old man there the Potter boy would have no guidance or protection,

The death of Harry Potter was still on his 'to do' list but his first goal was making his entire presence felt and that would soon come to light, he had this moment planned for weeks now and after waiting all this time and finally getting rid of the old goat Voldemort could wait another few weeks, after all he wanted this moment to be remembered and savor it forever,

Albus Dumbledore was dead, Potter would soon join him and he would take his rightful place as ruler of everything.

**ooO~Ooo**

**Author's notes:**

**I'm really not to pleased with how this chapter came out, to be honest at some point in the future I might go back and just redo this one but for now I'll leave it as it is.**

My main point with this was that it never made much sense to me as to why Harry couldn't go to certain people for help, I also wanted them back at Hogwarts since Deathly Hallows never felt like a true HP book since the setting wasn't Hogwarts.

I had a bit of a debate with someone over my statement regarding Snape in the intro part of chapter 1, to cover my feelings and opinions on certain characters and aspects of the series I'm going to get around to writing a very extensive piece that can be seen on my profile page sometime in the future, this is just so people won't start hating my story because I bash their favorite characters.

Finally, as to the spelling errors and whatnot, I will go back and change them AFTER the story is complete.

As always if you have any questions ask in a review or PM me.

Till next time guys.


	5. Chapter V

**Chapter V  
Order of the Uninformed**

**Disclaimer:**** Nope I don't own Harry Potter, believe me if I did there would be a lot less Weasley's in the world.**

The noise running throughout number 12 could have registered on the rickets scale, First to arrive had been Mrs Weasley, followed by her husband, shortly after the rest of the Weasley clan minus Charlie and Percy, then Moony and Tonks and Mad-eye, McGonagall with Hagrid and lastly Shacklebolt and Hesita Jones.

The questions had started almost immediately, Ron was being shouted at by his mother demanding to know who he thought he was, question after question came and then the guilt trips from Remus started to piss Harry off, thankfully Hermione snapped before he did however,

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" she yelled, Harry wondered if she had perhaps used the sonorous charm to increase her voice level, everyone suddenly stopped to turn the usually well mannered girl who was now supporting a slight blush in her cheeks,

"Look I'm sorry about that but hounding us isn't going to help and we should probably take this into the kitchen where everyone can sit down, you have questions well we have some answer's" she replied diplomatically, with a little frowning from some of the older order member over taking instructions from a seventeen year old girl the large group made their way into the kitchen, after even more time wasted with people trying to get certain seats (Ron next to Hermione and Ginny next to Harry) everyone was now a little more calm,

Hermione turned to Harry hoping he would start off but the look he was giving her was asking her to give an explanation, sighing in exasperation she turned back to the group,

"Okay, first of all thank you all for coming here today and Professor thank you for contacting everyone for us" she added with an appreciative nod towards the new headmistress who nodded in return to one of her favorite students,

"Now on to business, as some of you probably know when Dumbledore died last month he passed on a task to Harry and..."

"Dear, Harry and you are just children Albus wouldn't have passed on anything so dangerous that it caused you to run away" Molly Weasley interrupted in a rather condescending manner, Hermione already not in the best of moods with the Weasley family had to put all her effort into not glaring at the older women,

"I can assure you Mrs Weasley that he did in fact leave us with something to do and if you would kindly keep quiet until I'm done I will explain", several of the order looked at Hermione with a small amount of respect whilst the twins couldn't keep the glee of their faces of someone talking back to their mother, Molly's face went red but her husband small glare kept her quiet for the moment,

"As I was saying Dumbledore left Harry the job he couldn't finish, last year Dumbledore made a stupid mistake and it cost him his life, even after he found out he was dying he still didn't believe anyone else other than Harry, myself and Ronald should know", she was about to start once again but was cut off, this time by McGonagal,

"Wait Ms Granger are you saying Albus didn't want any of us to know?" she asked quite put out by this news,

"Yes, he told Harry only myself and Ron were allowed to know this but sadly he didn't really use his last few months wisely" Hermione replied, many of the order looked rather pissed off at Hermione and were about to start coming to the deceased mans defense, Harry seeing this stepped in,

"Hermione's right, Dumbledore may have been wise and respected but he didn't really help with planning out our task...look I'm going to be straight with all of you here, last year Dumbledore was showing me a bunch of memories from Tom Riddle's life and.."

"Wait why was Dumbledore showing you memories of someone called Tom Riddle?" Bill Weasley asked,

"It's Voldemort's real name" Harry replied back simply, a few of the order were rather surprised by this new information and Harry had to wonder just how far deep in the shadows had Dumbledore left them,

"Look the fact is Dumbledore didn't really teach me anything in those lessons and to be honest I still don't see what good they could really accomplish but he did tell me why Riddle seems so fixated on me and why I survived that Halloween years ago", Harry suddenly stopped he glanced over at Hermione who gave him the smallest of nods, he just hoped her plan would work...

**ooO~Ooo**

_**The previous night**_

"Okay I understand McGonagall, Remus and Tonks and even Shacklebolt and Moody as well but are you certain we should invite the Weasley's Hermione?" Harry asked,

"_Sadly when we send the letter to Professor McGonagal she will probably inform the rest of the Order and whilst I could tell her not to tell them in the letter I don't really have a good reason why, plus it might not be a bad idea to speak with William" _

"_Why do we need to speak with Bill?"_

"_Because he's a curse breaker and he might have come across a horcrux before so he might know a way to destroy them"_

"_Wouldn't Dumbledore have already talked to him though?"_

"_I honestly don't think he would have thought of it Harry, let's face it Dumbledore didn't exactly go to a lot of people for help did he?" Harry conceded that point and had to agree,_

"_Alright but what about the other Weasleys Hermione, after the potion thing how do we know which one's to trust?" He saw he bite her lip at this,_

"_Well...I have an idea, although it's a little out there" she replied meekly, Harry however was willing to hear her out,_

"_Okay here it is, do you remember the contract I had everyone in the DA sign?" Harry nodded not likely to forget that anytime soon,_

"_Well I was thinking that I could tie a contact in with a modified memory charm on the wards around this place" she explained, Harry had no idea what she was talking about so she elaborated,_

"_Basically I will make it so that anything we tell anybody tomorrow will be forgotten the minute they leave this place...unless they sign a contract"_

"_But what about those that don't remember, after all they will still remember McGonagall rounding them up to bring them here" Harry replied,_

"_Oh they will remember coming here and even seeing us but all they will remember is their reunion with us, not anything important like the Horcrux hunt or anything else"_

"_Can you do it...I mean in such a shot space of time, we are after all inviting them tomorrow"_

"_I should be able to, however I need something from you first"_

"_What?"_

"_Your blood"_

**ooO~Ooo**

**Back to Present**

Harry inwardly laughed at that memory, he had been quite fearful until he earned she only need a drop or two, still he wasn't certain of the mechanics of the wards she had put in place but she had gotten him to sign said contract after she had written it up, Harry had asked if Ron's knowledge of the horcrux's would be removed but she had informed him since he already knew everything today wouldn't be new information and thus he would still remember, it looked like the plan to obliviate him was still the best they had at the moment,

He looked back at the table to see everyone watching him waiting for him to carry on, letting out a small breath he had been holding he began,

"Okay I guess the best place to begin is the night we went to the Department of Mister and the Ministry of Magic..."

**ooO~Ooo**

It had turned into a long and argumentative talk, over the many hours Harry had coursed them through much of the information he himself had been given, he had explained the prophecy but hadn't given away the actual wording, he had simply told them it said "It comes down to me versus Voldemort" he had also explained that Riddle had taken steps to save himself from death but had referred to them as soul anchors, Unsurprisingly Hermione had been right and Bill had been one of only two to react the other had surprisingly been Shacklebolt, Harry filed that away for later, Some of the order couldn't get over the fact that Dumbledore would leave this task to a teenage boy and his friends even his strongest supporters were unable to defend the planning of the old man at this point,

By the time Harry and to a latter extent Hermione had finished night had already crept around and suddenly a new fight broke out with Molly wanting to take the kids home and Ron wanting to eat, once again Hermione snapped first once again using the sonorous to increase her voice volume,

"QUIET!", she canceled the charm looking once again embarrassed but kept her composure,

"Sorry again but let's calm down and talk like rational adults" she said stopping on Molly at the very end much to the woman's anger,

"Look it's already late but there is some food in the house and there are plenty of spare rooms, why doesn't everyone just stay here tonight and we can discuss everything else tomorrow", A few found the idea quite appealing especially the prospect of a meal although a few needed to head out,

"Ms Granger whilst I can certainly stop to eat I must return to Hogwarts before the night is over, I still have a lot of work to do before the school re-opens, which reminds me will you be returning for the new year?" she asked the younger girl, McGonagal was aware that if Hermione was returning so would the other two,

"Actually can I talk with you about that after the meeting is finished, I also would like a word in private"

"What about?" Ron asked, Hermione glared at him,

"It's private Ron or I wouldn't have said in private" she snapped,

"I need to Ge back tu Hogwarts meself Hermione, got plenty of creaturs tha need to be fed and all tha" Hagrid replied, Hermione looked at Harry knowing that whilst they both loved Hagrid very much he was terrible with secrets not to mention he was an avid Dumbledore supporter who wouldn't hear a word against the man even with evidence, Hermione could see the guilt in Harry's eyes but he had agreed to the plan and Hagrid couldn't be involved in the heavy stuff, forcing a smile she turned back to the half giant,

"That's fine Hagrid, I'm sure we'll see you there soon".

Sadly both Jones and Shacklebolt left even before supper both wanting to return home, Harry had wanted to try and get Shacklebolt to stay but at the moment he didn't want to risk Hermione's plan, after the meeting had ended everyone sort of disbanded but no one else actually left the house, Molly went about cooking whilst several of the others sought out bathrooms having full bladders after several hours build up,

Hermione had dragged McGonagall away and Harry prayed Hermione could get the Professor to sign it before she had to leave, this made Harry wonder who could actually be fully trusted with the information they had,

Hagrid, sadly was out, Harry had wanted to tell him but Hermione had brought up some good points the previous night.

Remus, Trustworthy but would probably try to get Harry to stay away from danger, irritating but understandable.

Tonks, He had been given no reason not to trust her so far and was one of the few who saw that Harry wasn't a kid anymore, she would probably be on bored.

Moody, Could hopefully teach him some tricks and wanted nothing more than the Death Eaters and Riddle finished, no reason not to trust him.

The Weasley's however were a little harder to get a feel on, the few that he could trust would probably be in two minds since they would need to be informed about Ron and Ginny's exploits and to the Weasley's family meant a lot, he was pulled from his thoughts however when Ginny walked up to him, she smiled and gave him a small "Hi",

"Uh, oh hi Ginny, um look I need to go to the bathroom I'll see you later alright" he quickly said wanting to get away from Ginny, he didn't miss the hurt look on her face either but right now he didn't trust her after hearing Ron under the truth serum the other night.

He neared the entrance way of the house And ran into Moody who appeared to be getting his coat on,

"Hey lad, I'm heading off but I'll talk to you tomorrow we can discuss getting you some damn training" the retired auror said still more than a bit pissed at Albus for not doing more to train Potter, Harry however realizing Moody's potential to stop him form leaving the house, he looked around making sure not to be overheard,

"Look Moody, I need you to stay here, there's more going on but we can't talk until a few of the other Order members have either left or gone to sleep" he said quickly, the old auror stared at Harry for a moment,

"Alright then" he said starting to hobble back into the hallway, Harry looked dumbfounded,

"That's it, no questions or anything?" Harry asked, the Moody chuckled in a rather sinister manner,

"Kid I was one of the best at what I did back in my day, your body language and the fact that you kept turning to the Granger lass showed the two of you were obviously up to something, I expect the full story later however" he said with an air of authority, Harry nodded in reply still a little surprised, he waited until the older man was out of his sight before heading upstairs to find Hermione.

**ooO~Ooo**

Minerva McGonagall found herself sat upon the bed of her favorite student in shock, Hermione had fully informed her of everything that had happened since their hunt had started, the questions the reasons why, the betrayal from the Weasley's and even more so the cunning side of her cub who had presented her with the contract, she had just finished signing it when there was a knock on the bedroom door,

"Hello?" Hermione asked,

"Hermione it's me can I come in" came Harry's voice, Hermione got up and unlocked the door letting him inside, he saw the Professor on the bed and turned back to Hermione,

"Did you fill her in on everything?" he asked, she nodded,

"Actually just finished"

"Will you help us Professor?" Harry asked, Minerva looked quite surprised that he would even need to ask,

"Of course I will"

"Even if it means having to keep secrets from certain other members?" Harry replied,

"I will admit I'd rather not but with the current circumstances I can understand why, if you don't mind me asking what do you plan to do about the Weasley's?", The teens glanced at each other neither having really been able to decide what to do, finally Harry broke the silence,

"Professor, later tonight after everyone's asleep we plan to have another meeting with a few of the others is there any chance you can make it back here later?" he asked hopefully, Minerva looked rather put out at this as she still had a lot of paper work to do but suddenly felt guilty when she realized how much more stress this young man was under compared to her,

"I suppose I could, what time do you wish for me to arrive?" she asked, Harry looked to Hermione for guidance, she appeared to think for a moment,

"We better make it rather late, maybe two in the morning, that way even the twins will be asleep", Minerva stood and nodded in acceptance, then I will be by later tonight dear, sadly I really do have a lot of work to do and must be going" she started to walk towards the door before turning back to Hermione,

"Ms Granger your certain I will remember all this once I leave?" she asked as politely as possible not wanting to offend her brightest student,

"Please trust me professor I know what I'm doing" the older women nodded politely before exiting the room, Harry turned to Hermione,

"Actually where did you learn so much about memory charms Hermione?" he asked almost instantly wishing he hadn't as he face soon dropped and was clouded with misery and guilt,

"My parents...I had to remove all their memories...of me" she replied timidly, Harry couldn't form a sentence, guilt started to swell up inside of him, not sure of what to say he gave a quick yet loving hug, he couldn't believe she was willing to do that for him, it was true she had given up a lot for him and with that in mind Harry only had one thought,

"_**I swear I will trust in you from now on Hermione"**_

**ooO~Ooo**

Harry struggled a little to stay awake waiting for 2am to roll around, not helped by the fact he was bored, eventually however he grabbed his invisibility cloak and made his way to Hermione's room and knocked gently, after a moment Hermione answered and Harry dragged her under the cloak, the two made there way to the living room as quietly as possible to find Mad-eye snoozing in an arm chair and proceeded to wake him up,

"Gah!" he gasped and almost reached for his wand before realizing who it was,

"Don't you two kids know you shouldn't wake an auror from his sleep" he mumbled as he began to stir,

"Sorry Moody, but it's almost two and the professor will be here in a minute" Harry replied, practically at the stroke of 2am Minerva arrived by floo looking a little disheveled from the tiredness,

"Is it just me and Alastor Potter?" McGonagall asked, Harry shook his head,

"We want to get Remus and Tonks in on this as well, which reminds me, Dobby" Harry called, the eager elf appeared,

"Master Harry be wanting Dobby's help sir?" Dobby asked,

"Dobby can you bring apparate Remus and Tonks down here?" Harry asked, Dobby suddenly vanished and reappeared with a very naked Tonks and Remus who suddenly were dropped on the hard floor were awoken with a start, it took a minute before the panicking began and the two were sent back to there room to get dressed,

"Please tell me someone put silencing charms up?" Harry prayed,

"Don't worry I put them up as we were heading down the stairs" Hermione replied, after a minute both Remus and Tonks were brought back looking rather red and annoyed,

eventually Tonks couldn't help but crack and started to chuckle helping ease the tension, eventually though it was time to get serious as Harry led them into the kitchen Hermione placing several protections up before closing the doors shut.

**ooO~Ooo**

The talk had lasted less than an hour and the four adults all wore different reactions,

McGonagall already knew most of this but still looked rather angry about everything.

Remus looked torn between shock and anger and was currently resembling a goldfish.

Tonks had a rare look of seriousness upon her face.

Moody however wasn't giving anything away but still appeared angry for them.

Harry coughed getting there attention back,

"So...what do you think we should do, if nothing else we know Ron, Ginny and Mrs Weasley were all in on this" he asked the group, however he wasn't expecting the look of shame they all wore even Moody looked a bit put out,

"What's wrong?" he asked, the four adults looked at one another none of them wanting to explain this, finally Remus sighed and took the bullet,

"Legally Harry...there isn't anything you can do", both Harry and Hermione looked surprised by this,

"What do you mean Professor?" Hermione asked accidentally still falling back into an old habit,

Remus ignored the professor line, "Basically Hermione using love potion's isn't exactly against the law", Hermione's face suddenly became red,

"But it's essentially taking away one's free will similar to the imperious, how on earth can it not be illegal?" she asked, if possible the adults became even more guilty,

"Well it both is and it isn't" Tonks replied meekly, Harry raised an eyebrow trying to figure that one out, however both teens still didn't understand, eventually Moody got tired of beating around the bush,

"Oh to hell with it I'll tell them, what no one is saying that essentially a pureblood can't be convicted of any crime when it comes to love potions" he explained, Harry appeared rather shocked but if anything Hermione looked even more enraged,

"Excuse me are you telling me that we could be what can't be described as anything other than drugged and raped yet we can't report them because technically they've done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law!?" Hermione asked, the four adults nodded but Hermione wasn't done,

"You said pure bloods Moody what if a Muggleborn like myself had used one of those things?" she asked no one in particular, Once again no one wanted to answer so Moody step up,

"It would be considered line theft and usually the culprit would see the inside of Azkaban for twenty or so years" he said, Hermione sat there arms crossed, mouth agape and could no longer contain her outrage,

"THAT'S SO UNFAIR!" all the adults flinched apart from Harry who was still just as surprised at Hermione by this news,

"Your telling us that just because of someones blood standing means someone like me could be locked away for two decades whilst a pureblood wouldn't even be given a warning!", Minerva tried to calm the girl down,

"Ms Granger we live a male pureblood dominated world, sadly this is the way it's always been and no one not even the few who disagree with it have the power to change things like this" she said sadly, Hermione sat back down in shock, she knew that at the moment they couldn't send the Weasley's to prison, heck she doubted she could get Harry to agree to that but she had hoped to get a restraining order or something,

Moody however wanted to get back onto another topic, "Earlier you mentioned that the dark bastard had made Horcruxes Potter?" Moody started, Harry was shook away from his thoughts before giving Moody a nod in response,

"Well I know very little about them, I basically know what they are but I haven't a clue how to destroy one other than Basilisk venom" he replied truthfully, none of the others had any input either,

"There is the Basilisk in the chamber, which we can use to destroy the locket, it's also one of the reasons we decided to return, the only problem is we still don't know what a few of the others are or where they are hidden" Harry said sighing in response, a door creaking behind them caused all six occupants to turn towards the kitchen door to reveal Bill and Fleur,

"I believe we can help you there Harry"

**ooO~Ooo**

**Author's Notes:**

**Let me start off by saying I'm sorry about the contract idea, when I was writing this chapter it was late and it was the best I could come up with, I needed a way to have everyone be there and here the entire story but only have a select few remember it, Think along the lines of the Goblet of fire Harry never writes his name but the still has to compete in the event, to me most contract seem more concerned about the magic involved rather than the signature.**

That been said a few people have worries about them returning to Hogwarts, I'm sorry but in DH Voldemort took over the school far to easily, I'm having the man wait and prepare this time around for his amazing take over.

Ron will be dealt with guys, his memories will be dealt with in chapter 8, It's nothing special but it's an explanation, just FYI he will be killed off, I'm just trying to think of a death fitting for the useless sack of crap.

I think that's about all I have to say for now.

Remember any questions you have leave in a review or send me a PM, and for the love of god REMEMBER TO SIGN IN so I can respond to you.

See you guys next Sunday


	6. Chapter VI

**Chapter VI  
Truth's Untold**

**Disclaimer:**** No I don't own Harry Potter...why will none of you believe me.**

Bill was attempting to catch his breath as he glanced towards his new wife who was also calming down from the high of their recent activities, the newly-weds hadn't really had time to enjoy their honeymoon, two days after leaving an owl arrived from his mother claiming Ron had disappeared along with Harry and Hermione, not really sure what to do the two had headed home so they could be alerted is anything cropped up,

Surprisingly it had been Professor McGonagal who had contacted him and informed him that Harry wanted a meeting with the Order of the Phoenix, Bill unsure what to expect left with Fleur and headed for the Burrow, Bill was quite aware that Harry had fought Voldemort and his Death Eaters and won more than practically anyone in the Order apart from save Moody so hearing his mother going on about no one being there to protect Harry made Billy a little annoyed, eventually they had arrived at headquarters and after a small shouting match they had all sat down and talked,

Hearing about the soul anchors had caused him to react, he was well aware of what Harry and Hermione were referring to and the idea that Voldemort had created more than one of these abominations had left him feeling a little sickly,

The meeting had gone on for hours and after a quickly put together meal by his mother for everyone Bill and Fleur had retired to one of the many rooms and after placing some privacy wards and silencing charms had proceeded to make love,

Bill pulled his attention away from his wife and glanced at the clock, it was approaching 3am he should really get some sleep but he was more than a bit hungry, rising up from the bed his wife suddenly called out,

"Where are you goin my love?" she asked, he smiled back,

"I'm just a bit hungry hon, you drained me" he joked, Fleur gave a short laugh and proceeded to get up and join him pulling on her clothes,

"I'm a little parched myself" she replied her accent causing her to slur her wording a tad.

The two left the bedroom and made there way down through the hall and down the stairs trying not to wake anyone up, they were however surprised to find the kitchen door not only shut but locked, they both looked at each other before Bill tried to use the Alohamora charm which had little effect, he tracked his wand over the door revealing some rather basic privacy charms, both he and Fleur pondered what on earth someone would be doing in the kitchen at this time of night, Bill suddenly had a thought,

"Stay here love I'll be back in a moment" he said as he crept back up the stairs, several minutes later Fleur saw him reamurge holding one of the twins extendible ears,

"Why did you get Bill?", she asked as he handed her one,

"Fred and George gave me a few to try out, now let's see who's in there" he replied, the married couple proceeded to drop to the floor and had activated the ears,

"_Your telling us that just because of someone's blood standing means someone like me could be locked away for two decades whilst a pureblood wouldn't even be given a warning!"_

Bill turned to his wife confusion on his face, "is that Hermione?" he mouthed, Fleur nodded in reply not wanting to speak over the noise,

"_Ms Granger we live a male pureblood run world, sadly this is the way it's always been and no one not even the few who disagree with it have the power to change things like this"_

Bill recognised the voice of his former transfiguration professor, he narrowed his eyes in confusion, just what were they talking about, why were the two women talking about pureblood males, those thoughts soon disappeared though when a third voice was heard and a new topic came about,

"_Earlier you mentioned that the dark bastard had made Horcruxes Potter?"_

Bill felt his blood run cold, he was quite familiar with what a horcrux was and the mere mention of them always sent a tingle of dread down his spine, a quick look at his wife also showed she was familiar with the item in question, he wondered briefly if Gringotts had educated her on them as well,

"_Well I know very little about them, I basically know what they are but I haven't a clue how to destroy one"_

They were trying to destroy a horcrux, was that what this meeting was about, why were Harry and Hermione a part of this they were teenagers for crying out loud, still he had information that could help, once again he turned to his wife who laid a hand on his shoulder,

"We need to help them" she said softly, he nodded and raised to his feet, the two put there curse breaking skills to use and within seconds broke the charms, he opened the door slightly,

"_There is the Basilisk in the chamber, which we can use to destroy the locket, it's also one of the reasons we decided to return, the only problem is we still don't know what a few of the others are or where they are hidden" Harry said sighing in response, a door creaking behind them caused all six occupants to turn towards the kitchen door to reveal Bill and Fleur,_

"I believe we can help you there Harry"

**ooO~Ooo**

It felt like hours but the silence actually lasted last than ten seconds, none of the four occupants at the table or the two new comers stood at the doorway were sure how to proceed, Harry was the first to break the silence,

"What do you mean you can help and were you listening in on our conversation?", both standing individuals had the good grace to blush in guilt before answering,

"We didn't know who was inside so we used some of the Twins extendible ears to..." Bill started but Hermione cut him off,

"Oh for crying out loud I forgot to ward against those stupid things!" she yelled in self anger,

"Yes well we heard mention a horcrux" he finished, again no one spoke for a moment,

"Oh for Merlin's sake get in you two and shut that bloody door!" Moody snarled at being caught out by this young kid and his even younger wife, both Bill and Fleur like a pair of teens caught out after hours scurried to the table and sat down with there heads lowered,

"So first off ignoring the fact the two of you saw fit to listen in on our meeting where you weren't invited, what did you mean you can help us? Moody gruffed out, Bill licked his lips,

"Well I've never come across any but whilst working for the Goblins you have to be educated in certain areas of magic that the ministry don't like too many people knowing of" Bill replied,

"Like horcruxes?" Harry asked, Bill nodded wondering where Harry had even heard about these,

"How do you and Hermione know about them Harry?" he asked unable to contain his curiosity, the group of four fell silent, Harry turned to Hermione who as concealingly as possible mouthed "contract", Harry suddenly remembered that neither Bill of Fleur had signed it and wouldn't remember any of this once they left, taking a chance that one of them might know something that could help he began to speak once again,

"Voldemort created horcruxes" he stated plainly, both new comers were gobbed smacked,

"Hocruxes as in plural?" Fleur asked her accent slipping in slightly, Harry nodded,

"Seven" he stated, Bill's eyes bugged out,

"SEVEN, is that even possible?" he asked, never having heard such a thing,

"That's what Dumbledore said" Harry retorted, both of them took a moment to let this sink in,

"This is why Riddle can't be killed yet, we actually have one upstairs locked away but we have no idea how to destroy it" Hermione said,

"Wait there is one here?" Fleur asked,

"Yes but that's not important, do either of you know a way to destroy one?" Harry asked, he didn't want to be near that damn locket with the knowledge that a piece of Riddle's soul was inside, nor did he want it near Bill or Fleur, at the moment his faith in the Weasley's wasn't exactly glowing,

"Well there are a few ways but it's been a few years since I was given lessons on this sort of thing, I do remember that a Phoenix fire can destroy one" Bill answered,

"A phoenix fire?" Harry asked,

"A phoenix fire is the flames that surround a phoenix on it's burning day Mr Potter" McGonagal answered taking on her teacher voice,

"What about Fawkes, I know we would need to wait but it's a back up plan if nothing else?" Harry asked, the new headmistress sadly shook her head,

"Unfortunately Mr Potter Fawkes hasn't been seen since Albus's funeral", Harry had to suppress a groan of frustration, an answer was in front of them but they had no means to it,

"There are other ways Harry but it's the goblins that know more about this kind of thing" Bill exclaimed,

"Surely Dumbledore would have thought of that?" Harry inquired, no one could miss Minerva's fighting, she also had a grimace look upon her face,

"Well as much as I always admired Albus, I must confess he didn't often seek outside help" she explained,

"But with something as important as this he must have checked every option?" Harry asked unable to grasp the idea that Dumbledore hadn't even thought of it,

"Albus was very set in his ways lad, even when he was younger he didn't believe an answer existed unless he could see it" Moody spoke, Harry turned to Hermione, he had remembered her telling him a few of her own feelings on Dumbledores lack of planning and oversights of obvious things, could the former headmaster really have not looked to others for help on this, the old man even told Harry not to breath a word of the horcrux to anyone other than Ron and Hermione, two of five other people sitting at the table were some of his oldest and closet friends yet he didn't trust them with the information, the question was why, Harry felt like his head was going to burst, thankfully Hermione's voice broke Harry from his musing,

"Could the goblin be trusted with this?" she asked,

"I'm not sure, it depends, whilst they find things like a horcrux disgusting they also wouldn't want to be seen taking sides in a war, at the moment V..Vol...Voldemort isn't at his most active and until he become a threat to Gringotts the goblins might be willing to help us" Bill replied, again no one spoke soaking up this information,

"Well Harry what do you think, should we contact Gringotts?" Hermione asked, he looked up to see five sets of eyes turn to him, it suddenly occurred to him that they were expecting him to be making the big decision here, he was been put in charge of this operation,

Should they contact Gringotts, also what Bill said rang in his ear, if they did contact the goblins they would have to keep this on the down low, perhaps they would have some way to track the other soul anchors as well, Harry gave the idea a few minutes of thought, there were definitely things about this that could come back to bite them but Harry's first priority was to destroy Riddle for good, there was one problem staring him straight in the fact though, Bill,

If they did this they would need either Bill or Fleur to help make arrangements with the goblins, the problem was neither would remember this meeting once they left Grimmuald thanks to the contract Hermione set up, he wasn't sure what to do he couldn't think of a way around telling Bill and Fleur the truth about Ron, Ginny and Mrs Weasley, they would ask questions about what the contract was and why none of their family had signed it, Fleur might not have been a big problem but Bill was Ron and Ginny's older brother and Mrs Weasley's son, he sighed, he was going to just have to take a chance and hope for the best,

"Okay I think we should speak with the goblins...but before we discuss that there's something else we need to talk about".

**ooO~Ooo**

"No"

Harry sighed, he had thought the conversation about the horcrux would have been the hardest part but telling Bill that three members of his family had essentially tried to rape both he and Hermione had been even harder, after discovering the truth Bill had sat mouth open for a good thirty seconds or so, even Fleur was quite subdue but not looking nearly as shocked, Harry had actually been surprised by the two lettered word that came out of Bill's mouth,

"No, what Bill?" he asked, Bill suddenly started to display a little of the Weasley temper trait,

"There is no way my family would do that, especially my little sister" he snapped, Harry was rather surprised by the response coming from the older red head,

"Bill I know this can't be nice to hear but I'm not lying, we got the truth from Ron", suddenly Bill's fisted pounded the table,

"No, Ron is an idiot, he was probably making some terrible joke or something" he tried to explain, most of the adult apart from McGonagal suddenly looked unsure, they hadn't been told how he and Hermione had found the truth,

"Bill we know it's not a joke as we used veritserum on Ron" Harry replied, Bill suddenly shot out of his chair and glared down at Harry,

"Who the hell do you think you are Potter, using veritserum outside of a court is illegal!", suddenly Hermione's own temper snapped,

"I found a love potion keyed to your useless brother William but you seem to be glossing over that little fact, we had a right to know if he was apart of the drugging or not!"

"Ron's in love with you, you stupid girl, I admit it was wrong but he only did it to open you mind to the idea of being with him!"

"OPEN MY MIND, open my mind, if anything he was closing my mind since he was taking the choice away from me and if it wasn't for your stupid pureblood laws I would have the little leech arrested!" she spat back,

"We'll see who's arrested after I tell everyone who's been using veritserum outside of ministry access!" he growled and quickly turned and headed for the door, completely forgetting in his anger he was in the company of two aurors, both Tonks and Moody shot spells at Bill who dropped to the floor,

"WHAT DID YOU HIT HIM WITH!" Fleur shrieked at the other occupants, Hermione hadn't forgotten about her and had her wand ready with a spell on her mind,

"Err I only used the totalas, Mad Eye what did you do?" Tonks replied rather meekly, not having meant to hurt Bill,

"A stunner" he replied looking rather pleased with himself, Fleur calmed herself realising her husband hadn't been badly hurt and was suddenly overcome at what she had just heard come out of Bill's mouth,

He had essentially just admitted that Hermione was wrong to want her freedom, he was also unwilling to admit that his family would do anything like this, Fleur had to admit she didn't really get on with his family to well,

Charlie seemed like a nice guy but she had only got to meet him two days before the wedding, Arthur was also a nice man but was a bit of a push over, the twins she liked as they could both get over her allure and were very funny, Bill's mother and two youngest siblings however she had never really liked, Ronald was in her personal opinion a waste of oxygen and both Ginny and Molly were snidely and cruel, she had thought Bill was different but apparently he also couldn't see past his family loyalty whenever they did something wrong.

The six other conscious occupants in the room continued to watch the half veela, her face went from concern to anger and something akin to disappointment, Harry wounded what must be going through her head right now,

"Fleur, I'm sorry but...we might have to obliviate him" Fleur's head snapped towards Harry, to his surprise she didn't look angry, if anything she looked sad and seemed to be silently asking for a moment to think, Harry obliged,

_"I cannot believe this, a year and a half together and I never suspected...__**well no one has ever suspected his family would do something like this...**__I can't say finding this out surprises me to much, there was something about Molly other than her bitching I never liked...__**does Bill really consider everyone outside of his family below them, even me...**__I know he had a blind spot at least where Ginny was concerned but to say __Hermione should have just gone with being potioned...__**I don't know what to do, did we get married to fast..."**_

Fleur tried to bring her thoughts back to the problem at hand, whilst her head was in disarray in regards to her relationship, she could admit this issue was more important in the grand scheme, she turned back to look at the other occupants of the kitchen, some were sat with sombre looks on their faces, Moody looked his usual self, the surprise though was Hermione who looked ready to attack her if need be,

**"**_**She doesn't trust you..**__does she have a reason to...__**I guess not, she has never like me much either...**__could have been the potion she was getting...__**plus other than recently I have not spoken once to her...**__not even during the tournament...__**she nor any of the other's really have much of a reason to trust me"**_

"Please, I'm not going to fight you Hermione and...I agree, if Bill is still aware of everything when he wakes up he will tell his family the first chance he gets" she replied rather sombre, Hermione calmed her jets and lowered her wand,

Once again the group went quiet until Harry pointed out the obvious, "Well...there goes that plan, no Bill, no goblin help", Fleur looked surprise by this admission,

"Bill may not be able to help with the goblins Harry but I work with them also" she said, Harry turned back to her eyes narrowing a little,

"Even after what you've found out tonight, even though you will be essentially working behind the back of the family you just married into and against your husband who also works at the bank, your still willing to help us?" he asked, he admitted he didn't know the blonde that well but from what Molly, Ginny and even more so Hermione had admitted to none of them thought much of the women,

"This is bigger than Bill or the other Weasley's Harry, I...I love Bill but the goblins could help end the war, that's more important right now then this betrayal" Fleur turned to Hermione,

"Hermione, I swear I never knew about this, and you have no idea how much veela loathe those types of potions, the fact that my husband's family would use them and that Bill doesn't seem to be able to get past his family loyalty has me asking questions I'm not sure I like",

Fleur took a deep breath as she regained her composure, "With that been said, I will still help you, I joined the order last year to help people and I haven't forgotten what you did to help my little sister Harry", everyone seemed to relax the more Fleur spoke and by now everyone had calmed entirely, Hermione sighed, this had been a very stressful night but they weren't quite done,

"Okay, we can see to William in a moment but here's how we plan to keep this a secret..."

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry laid in his bed, thankful that he had been adamant about having his own room so he didn't have to hear Ron snore for a change, still the silence was a deafening as a house full of Weasley's snoring,

The group had broken up and gone back to their respective rooms or left after the meeting, everyone had agreed to the terms of the contract and willingly signed it, Bill had been awoken and a fight had almost broke out until both he and Remus had held him down whilst Mad eye had obliviated him, no one had been happy about this but it had to have been done, whilst he had been sadden by Bill's attitude he did feel a lot happier now that they had help, he still wasn't sure what Dumbledore had been thinking in regards to the idea of keeping everything a secret, he was broken from his musing however when the door creaked open,

"Harry, are you awake?" a gentle quite tone came from the door, he turned to see Hermione's head poking around it, he silently waved her in and she made her way towards his bed, shutting the door behind her,

"It's been a long day hasn't it?" she said as she sat on the edge of his bed Harry caught sight of her concealing something under her shirt but let it slide for a moment since he was sure she wouldn't do anything to him,

"Tell me about it, first the wedding, then the escape, then Ron and the horcrux and everything else, it's been a long week let alone a long day" Harry replied releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding, Hermione nodded in agreement, she locked her eyes on his and smiled sweetly,

"I have something for you" she suddenly pulled out a package from under her bed shirt and handed it to him, he looked confused for a moment,

"I'm sorry Harry, I bought it weeks ago but with everything that's happened I forgot to wrap it until twenty minutes ago", Harry unwrapped the parcel and discovered a nice looking burgundy shirt neatly wrapped,

"I know it's only clothes but I wanted you to have something different from me for you 17th birthday" Hermione explained feeling a little nervous as her friend didn't seem to have much of a reaction to the gift"

_**"**__My birthday...is it really the 31__st__ already?"_, Harry looked up to Hermione,

"Is it really my birthday today Hermione?" he asked, Hermione looked surprised by his question, she relaxed realising that it wasn't the shirt he didn't like,

"Yes Harry it is, Happy 17th and welcome to adulthood" she replied a smile back on her face, Harry looked back down and felt the material in his hand, the shirt was nice there was no doubting that and it was nice to finally be bought something like this for a change,

"Thank you Hermione, it's really nice...wow...I'm seventeen now, I can't believe it...do you realise that we've known each other nearly six years now?" he asked, a joyful expression on his face, Hermione nodded,

"Yes I do, just think, that cute angelic looking little boy I met on the express all those years ago would turn into this powerhouse troublemaker" she said teasingly, Harry blushed, Hermione suddenly let out a huge yawn,

"I'm sorry Harry but it's going on five in the morning and I need to get some rest, I'm glad you like your present", she got up and kissed him gently on the cheek,

"Goodnight Harry" she said as she got up to leave, Harry still felt a little red in the face but managed to return the pleasantry, as he found himself back to the silence he had been experiencing his thoughts no longer lingered on the old man but the young women who had just left his room,

_"Hermione thought I was cute?"_

Despite the coming storm that night Harry's dream was pleasant for once, his dream blended with the memory of the Yule ball from his 4th year but this time he was enjoying himself rather than being shy, he happily swayed back and forth with his dance partner, the atmosphere and the music adding to the romantic experience he was feeling, his eyes locked with those of his date and he felt himself being drawn in as their lips approached one another slowly, just when they were about touch he was startled awake by the yelling of the Molly Weasley,

"HARRY POTTER GET UP, IT'S TIME FOR YOU BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST!"

Harry groaned as reality suddenly sunk back in, his mind couldn't believe what he had just dreamed, he had been about to kiss his date for the ball but it wasn't Pavarti Patil in his dream it had been Hermione.

**Ooo~ooO**

**Authors Notes:**

To any Bill fans out there I would apologise but that would mean I feel sorry for the way I portrayed him and...I don't, I can honestly see Bill being unwilling to believe his baby sister would do something like love potions, I want to stress that he isn't evil though,

That being said I'm going to leave this one in the hands of you guys, on what you think I should do with Bill/Fleur, to me their relationship didn't make much sense but I'm not bothered by them one way or another, I'll be placing a poll on my profile page sometime soon, so if you have a preference, go vote.

Also a quick thanks to **AlaskanKing**, he mentioned I had forgotten about Harry's birthday, this is true, I completely forgot to include it, there will be a bit mentioned about his party in the next chapter but ultimately it's of no importance, other than apparation Harry has not yet used magic so I managed to side step that little plot hole.

One last thing I want to mention, people have continued to criticize the grammar and spelling errors, I'm well aware that it sucks, hell if it wasn't for my creativity and intelligence I would have failed my English class due to how poor my literary skills are.

That being said, I am not going to actively seek out a beta, but if anyone wants to download the story themselves and correct the mistakes, have at it, I will appreciate it, I do plan to get a beta AFTER the story is complete though.

As always any questions you have I will answer.

Sorry for this long post.

See you guys next Sunday


	7. Chapter VII

**Chapter VII  
Darkness in the Distance**

**Disclaimer:**** I'm happy to report Rowling has signed over all right of Harry Potter to me...NOT!**

Harry spent that next day in a quickly put together small birthday celebration, Hermione explained to him later that day that most people had gotten him something but with the stress of the wedding and them having run off has they had, everyone had forgotten about their presents and his birthday in general, Not that Harry really minded since his thoughts had been occupied on more important things, still some of the adults had been insistent on a little celebration,

The day crawled along slowly, and Harry knew that some of the order would soon be leaving, apart from himself and Hermione only five members of the order would be retaining there memories of the horcrux knowledge,

Harry had to admit he'd been a little on edge all day just waiting for something to go wrong, he had expected someone to say something to Hagrid who had dropped by with a gift for him but surprisingly no one had mentioned anything, Harry supposed it wasn't normal to talk about such things in pleasant company, and especially at someone's birthday party.

There was a couple of annoyances throughout the day however, Ginny seemed to keep making cow eyes at him all the time, the twins were also going over bored with their pranks which whilst fun were now distracting him far too much, He had chosen to wear the shirt Hermione had given him the previous night, this had led to very jealous looks from Ron, and venomous looks towards Hermione from both Ginny and Mrs Weasley,

Harry couldn't help but still feel hurt over their lies and deceit, the closest thing to a brother and a mum had betrayed him, he admitted to himself he hadn't really spent enough time with Ginny for that betrayal to hurt as much but he had still considered her a friend,

He was shouted over by Bill who still had no idea he had been obliviated the night before, faking a smile, Harry got up and went over to socialize.

**Ooo~ooO**

"Ronald Weasley, you ran off once I am not having you do it again now get you things together, we're going home" Mrs Weasley's voiced rang through the kitchen, the party had ended and the afternoon was coming to a close, a handful of the order had already left and currently the matriarch of the Weasley family was trying to get her entire family back home,

"Oh mum do I have to?" Ron whined, Harry was sat at the table with Tonks and Hermione chatting about her auror training but instead decided to watch the entertainment that was a Weasley blow-out,

"Yes you do now go pack or I swear to Merlin I will put you over my knee, I've asked you once and I will not ask you again Ronald NOW GO PACK!" she yelled, Ron quickly dashed towards the staircase in order to get away from the human banshee cross-breed, Molly then turned her attention towards the two youngsters,

"Harry, Hermione why don't you two go and get packed as well, we'll be setting off in about an hour", Harry wasn't sure what to say and knew that the chance of not setting the women off was slim to nothing,

"Err...Mrs Weasley, we're kind of staying here" Harry replied meekly, Molly narrowed her eyes at the pair,

"What do you mean you staying here, you'll be coming to the Burrow of course" she stated, Harry looked towards Hermione who seemed to be trying to calm herself, it appeared his best friend was still entirely pissed at the Weasley's,

"We're not going because..." Harry started,

"There not going because Remus and I are going to be giving Harry some training, and I'm taking Hermione back to her parents in the morning" Tonks butted in, both teens looked towards the older women before latching on to the story,

"Nonsense, Harry shouldn't need to be trained, he should be with his family and I'm sure Hermione's parents won't mind her staying with us", the potion queen mentioning her parents lit a fire inside of the young women,

"Look Mrs Weasley, I'm sure you believe you think you know what's best but the fact it Harry and I still have a job to do, a job that's been left to us to finish, you trust in Dumbledore so much then answer me this, why did he not inform you or any of the other's about the horcrux's?" Hermione asked, Molly's face began to go red, whether from anger or embarrassment no one could tell,

"Well he...I mean he probably...he..."Molly closed her mouth unable to come up with a retort, she just stood there for a moment looking more and more angry until they heard a loud bang come from the floor above followed by a loud obnoxious trumpet sound,

"FRED, GEORGE WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU UP TO!" she screamed, happy to have a target for her anger, she quickly left with out so much as an excuse me, the three other occupants breathed a sigh of relief, Harry looked at Hermione who had her head down and seemed to be holding back some tears,

"Are you alright?" he asked, before instantly regretting it realising what a stupid question that was, Hermione didn't look up,

"I will be, I just miss them" she replied quietly, Tonks looked confused at the two, she looked at Harry who shrugged,

"Sorry Tonks, it's not my place to tell you", Hermione suddenly looked up having forgotten the third seated person in the room, Hermione sighed deeply, she was feeling rather ashamed of herself but perhaps getting it all out to someone might help, Harry already knew but having another women to talk to might make things easier,

"Harry, could you give Tonks and I some privacy for a little while?" she asked, Harry was a bit hurt by this,

"Hermione you know you can talk to me about anything" he stated, Hermione smiled reassuringly making him feel a little better,

"I know but I doubt you want to get in on 'girl talk'" she replied, Harry having heard horror stories about girl talk quickly left to find safer pastures, he went upstairs and his eyes were given a feast of watching Ron chase down a chocolate frog like a madman.

**Ooo~ooO**

The Weasley's had finally left but not without incident, Ron had finally caught the chocolate frog but had bumped into his mother knocking her down, Molly who had still not been in the best of moods quickly gave her youngest son a bollocking, She had also tried again to get Harry and Hermione to join them but once again Hermione had used their faith in Dumbledore against them and with Arthur there this time Molly's argument didn't have a leg to stand on, Bill and Fleur had both set off for their own home as well but not before Fleur had slipped Hermione off to the side for a moment, Hermione had also gotten a hold of Ron for a few minutes and had led him to her bedroom, he had come back with a slight dazed look on his face, Harry had felt a swell of jealous creep up on him until Hermione mouthed "He's been obliviated" making Harry feel a bit better,

Just after the Red head clan had left Moody had headed for home as well but had promised to return in a couple of days to give some training to Harry, The house now just had four occupants, Remus and Tonks had gone off to do their own thing which had left Harry and Hermione all alone in the living room, even though the day hadn't really been that draining Harry still flopped onto the chair, with Hermione choosing the settee,

"So you managed to remove Ron's memories of the horcrux's then?" he enquired, Hermione leaned back into the comfy cushions and nodded,

"Yes, it was surprisingly easy, although I think Ron had other ideas about why I took him up there" she answered,

"Oh?" Harry asked feeling a bit of bile appear in his stomach,

"Yeah, I got him upstairs, I told him I think I had one of his Canons books and..."

_Ron looked around the room but couldn't see his 'Flying with the Canon's" book anywhere, "Hermione I thought you said...", he turned around and saw Hermione gently closing the door and locking it, Ron's mind could only see this ending one way,_

_**"I'm about to have sex with Hermione!",**__ Hermione walked towards the bed and gently sat on it, she patted the space right next to her and Ron quickly claimed the spot making the bed squeak from the heavy fall of weight, _

_Hermione sighed to herself, she couldn't believe she was doing this, "Ron I know you like me" she said in a very matter of fact tone, Ron's eyes bugged out, he could also feel his ability to produce saliva disappear,_

"I know you've liked me for a while and I...I like you to" she said, almost choking on her own words, Ron however didn't catch the lie, _Hermione quickly gathered her courage,_

"I think we should do something about it, don't you agree?" she asked she pulled out her wand and slowly concealed it within her long sleeved shirt, Ron nodded resembling Dobby with his eagerness, Hermione slowly leaned in to him and Ron tilted his head not believing he finally had the girl he wanted, the one thing Potter didn't have, just as their lips were about to meet, Hermione spoke in a voice so quiet Ron had barely been able to make out the words,

"Potrifcus Totalus", Having not spotted her wand Ron suddenly found himself as still as a statue, thankfully the bed had broken any fall he would have had, Hermione finally came back into view, however this Hermione was the girl from a moment ago all sweet and innocent but one that was looking down at him with disgust and _loathing,  
__  
"You just had to use those potions didn't you, __have no idea how much I hate you Weasley, for the last six years I have put up with your crap and you bullying and your constant need to argue with me, the only reason I stayed was for Harry he may not be perfect but he has never once set out to make me feel bad about myself, He is the only reason I put up with you all this time, I knew if I wanted to be friends with him I had to put up with you", she spoke, Ron felt his blood chill, she wasn't shouting like his mother or when the two of them had one of there many arguments, no this was cold and toneless, Hermione took a breath from her length speech,_

"But no more, finally I'll not have to put up with your behaviour any more, Harry's finally seen what you truly are, nothing but a pathetic, no hope, useless little slug"

Hermione finally drew her wand from her hidden wrist, Ron almost wet himself thinking she was going to kill him but her next statement saved him from emptying his bladder,

"_Scum like you should be in prison, what were you going to do Ron, use the potion to have sex with me, make me marry you"_

"Perhaps you've forgotten how Voldemort came to be you bastard, his mother used a love potion as well"

"Lucky for you, there are more important things going on, but your part in the hunt has come to an end", Hermione pointed he wand right at Ron's head, mere inches away from it, she put her focus on the horcruxes and everything surrounding them,

"Obliviate"

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry stared opened mouth at his companion, who had looked more and more upset with herself the longer the tale had gone one, Harry hadn't realised how much she had hated Ron, a small part of Harry had hoped that perhaps the trio could at least get along again some day but Hermione seemed dead set against it,

"Wow...Hermione...I...I don't know what to say" He stated truthfully, he found it hard to believe that the same girl who had come up with such pathetic lies during their first year had grown into a young women who was willing to seduce someone she obviously wasn't too fond of at the moment, Harry pondered for a moment if hew would have had the guts to do something like that, however Hermione's voice cut across his trail of thought,

"It had to be done Harry and I was on a bit of a clock, what with the Weasley's heading home, I'm not exactly proud of myself but desperate times call for desperate measures" she said, Harry nodded gently in reply,

"Oh what did you tell Ron when you had obliviated him?" he asked in mild curiosity, Hermione suddenly gave a small smile,

"Well the spell made him a bit dazed so I told him he knocked his head on the bed post and then I handed him his book back" she replied, Harry raised an eyebrow,

"You were reading 'Flying with the Canon's?" he asked amused,

"No, I just took it from him so I had an excuse to invite him in" she replied, Harry chuckled,

"You even had that little exhibition all planned didn't you?" he asked jokingly, Hermione smiled rather sheepishly,

"Would it seem arrogant if I told you I came up with that on the spot?" she asked, Harry could only think of one statement to that,

_"Brilliant, but scary"_

**Ooo~ooO**

Tracy Davies had never felt such fear in all her life, oh sure being inside the snake den at Hogwarts came with a certain amount of fear and worry, however with the help of her best friend and some soundly advice she had kept her head down and had been left pretty much alone for her six years at Hogwarts, and right now keeping her head down and trying to avoid being spotted was all that was keeping the dark browned haired girl from being killed,

She and her family had just sat down to dinner, her little four year brother had been telling a winsicule tale about some worm he had found in the garden earlier when suddenly the front door had burst right open, a voice came from the hallway with only one wall separating them and the intruders,

"Davies, DAVIES, where are you!?" came a man's voice bellowing, more than one set of footsteps were heard, neither Tracy or any of the other three occupants had moved and even if they had wanted to the moment the kitchen door opened they no longer could due to fear, there at the doorway stood three death eaters all dressed up in their robes and masks, the tallest one at the front swaggered in almost looking jovial,

"Good evening Davies and Davies family, I do hope we aren't interrupting you evening" the masked man said mockingly, Tracy watched as her farther shakily got to his feet,

"What do you want?" he asked nervously, the Death eater chuckled,

"I would have thought that would be fairly obvious, AVADA KEDAVRA!" a bright green light erupted from the man's wand and engulfed her father who fell to the ground as dead as the wood beneath him, suddenly pandemonium had broken out as Tracy tried to take her brother's hand but got knocked back by one of the death eaters, thankfully she didn't see what happened next as one of the other two had cast another killing curse, he mother's shrike of "NO, YOU BASTARDS!" made it clear who they had just killed,

Tracy got to her feet as her mother screamed at her, "TRACY RUN!", in the chaos that ensued, she had managed to head back through the kitchen and headed for the hall only to find a fourth death eater waiting by the door, she managed to side step a curse sent her way and bounded up stairs, locking herself in her room, she then began gasping for breath and tried to apparate away only to find the anit-apparation wards her father had placed for their safety would now be her death,

_She pressed her ear to the door only to find little noise other than voices that sounded rather far from her room, she couldn't make out what they were saying but suddenly there was a loud footsteps outside her door but to her surprise no one tried to open it, after a moment the foot steps led away and Tracy heard the front door very clearly close, Unable to properly catch her breath Tracy started to panic, the silence being even more scary than the actual loud noises, she gently reached for her doorknob and went to open the door only to find it locked, she tugged harder and harder and even tried the unlocking charm but nothing was working, the floor beneath her was starting to get hot and she noticed something form out side her window, she looked out and there on the back garden stood the four death eaters watching, Tracy was about to jump back from the window when something caught her eye, there was smoke coming from the floor below her, a lot of smoke, "THEY'VE SET FIRE TO THE HOUSE!" _she thought to herself, she ran back towards the door and began to beat on it hard trying with all her might to knock it down, she tried blasting it down with magic but to no avail, turning back smoke was now beginning to enter her room and within a mere few minutes her room suddenly was lit with the flames,

Tracy used the agumenti spell as much as she could but despite putting out a few of the flames the smoke was starting tot get to her, eventually the fumes overcame her and she struggled to get to the door and in a last ditch effort pounded on it,

"Please...please let me out" she cried, knowing full well it was futile, she let the tears overcome her, her fate right before her to die here tonight, even with the door situated behind her it wasn't enough to keep her upright as she passed out,

The only shred of mercy for Tracy that night came from the fact that the smoke killed her before the flames had the chance.

**Ooo~ooO**

Out on the lawn the four death eaters stood and watched as the blood traitors house and family was burned to the ground, the leader watched with morbid joy when he was broken form his stupor by one of his company,

"Did you get it Carrows?" a much younger sounding male asked, Carrow reached into his robe and pulled the Davies family ring he had just taken from the dead body of Robert Davies, he twirled and admired the golden ring in his hand before returning it to his pocket,

"Of course, now as much as I'd like to stay and watch this place burn, the master will want to know of the success of tonight, with that the four walked a slight distance to escape the wards of the home before they apparated back to their masters hideout.

**Ooo~ooO**

**Authors notes:  
**

**It's amazing how many characters weren't utilized in canon, hell some of the kids Harry gets sorted with in first year are never mentioned again after that night.**

Tracy Davies and her families death does have a reason behind, not a big one but a reason nonetheless, I actually felt pretty bad whilst writing that death scene.

However writing Ron and Hermione like that made me feel even more sick, sadly I decided to just go ahead and have Ron's memories removed as best as possible by Hermione, nothing else I thought of seemed to work as well.

I'm going to ask nicely ONE time, please don't bitch about my spelling and gramma, I have never had any skill with it and I've had problems with it since I was in primary school, I will get the story a beta AFTER it's complete.

Finally if you have an opinion on the Bill/Fleur relationship and what you want me to do with them, then vote in the poll on my page, I will not accept vote's in reviews. The poll will be up until Friday morning UK time.

With that said I'll see you guys next sunday.


	8. Chapter VIII

**Chapter VIII  
Summer Falls**

**Disclaimer:**** Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling, Warner Bros and I'm sure a bunch of other's I own...well nothing that matches up to that anyway.**

Harry was amazed, within a few days he had learned more form Remus, Tonks and Moody than he had all year from Dumbledore, not to say he now considered himself a powerhouse or anything but some of the techniques that the auros used whilst duelling would more than likely come in useful,

Something as simple as normal exercise helped with his endurance though he had found it difficult at first, he had thought he would have been in good shape due to his quidditch training to which Tonks had laughed and said "How is flying around on a broom exercise?", However Harry was nothing if not tenacious and carried on with training every day,

On one of the mornings in the middle of august Harry had been sat at the kitchen table eating toast, glancing at Hermione he noticed she was shaking slightly whilst reading the paper,

"Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked, Hermione handed him the paper, he quickly placed his food aside and read the headline,

**Davis Family Dies in House Fire  
Accident or Attack?**

Harry read the first part of the article, another family had died and he felt the guilt well in him, he needed to get off his arse and get this finished sooner or later, he was however snapped out of his coming downer for a moment,

_"Davis...Davis...I know that name from somewhere"  
_

He turned towards Hermione who seemed to be rubbing unshed tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall,

"Hermione are you alright...do you know them?" he asked, Hermione suddenly looked up,

"Of course I do, Harry even you knew the oldest daughter" she replied rather put out, Harry cocked an eyebrow in confusion, he re-read the article and came across a name,

"Tracy Davis...Tracy Davis...her name sounds very familiar" he admitted softly, Hermione looked upset at him,

"You should remember her, hell you've only been her classmate for seven years Harry", Harry turned once again to her,

_"Seven years...a classmate?" _

Harry racked through his brain trying to place all the students in his year to their houses, he suddenly remembered a rather pretty girl with brown hair similar to Hermione but a bit darker, he also remembered she worse green and silver on her robes,

"Wait wasn't Davis a Slytherin, why would the death eaters attack one of their own?" he exclaimed, Hermione looked at him in outrage,

"Tracy Davis wasn't a bad person Harry, nor are her family death eaters!" she shouted, Harry however wasn't aware of the trouble he was in,

"Hermione she's in slytherin, of course she was a death eater" Harry replied, Hermione looked at him for a moment before her temper began to snap,

"I'll have you know Harry, whilst Tracy may have been a Slytherin she was also a friend of mine!" she roared,

Harry sat their looking dumbfounded, he had heard her right hadn't he, "_Hermione was friends with a snake...when did that happen?"_

"What do you mean, I never knew you had other friends Hermione" Harry instantly regretted saying it by the hurt look on her face,

"Wait I didn't mean it like that..I just mean you've never mentioned spending time with anyone whilst at Hogwarts apart from Ron and me" he explained, Hermione watched him with contempt for a moment before sighing,

"First of all Harry I will admit you are my best friend and I'm closer to you than I've been to anyone else in my entire life...apart from perhaps my parents, but I do talk to other people on occasion" she got from her chair and went to put on a pot of coffee,

"I met Tracy and a few other girls in the other houses during my third year, you and I weren't taking all the same classes any more so I had no one to sit with or anything, So one day in ancient ruins the professor pairs me with Tracy and I found that not all Slytherins were complete bigots and some of them were actually willing to work hard, eventually I met a couple of Tracy's friends when we had to do a group study and whilst I would actually call us friends..we were friendly to one another..it was nice" she said, she looked sadden again with the reality of the girls death hitting her once again,

"But why did you never tell me about her Hermione?" Harry asked, she eyed him again and Harry felt a little nervous at her stare,

"Two reasons, one, two of them were slytherins and I knew you would react badly to the news"

"But Hermione their Slytherins, of course I would have reacted badly, they might have been using you" he said trying to explain himself,

"Harry do you know how much of a bigot you sound like just now, you sound like Ronald" she snapped, Harry felt his own blood pressure rising

"Hermione the slytherin house has always been evil, everyone knows that" he stated,

"Evil, an entire house evil, do you know how childish that sounds Harry, I will admit that some like Voldemort haven't helped with that reputation but answer me this, other than Malfoy, Parkison and his two bodyguards, how many of them have actually tried to make life difficult for us?" Harry smirked ready to answer until he realised he didn't have one,

He stood there motionless for a moment desperately trying to think of any one thing, Hermione stood arms crossed and almost screamed when Harry suddenly turned to her and pointed his finger,

"AH HA, I have, second year, when that Bulstrode girl got you in a headlock" he said, Hermione let her heart slow down from it's shock,

"Yes she did...and she apologised in fourth year" Hermione replied, Harry's smile of victory soon turned to despair,

"But...but Hermione...everyone says all Slytherins are evil, surely that must mean something" he begged unwilling to think that his hatred for the house was unfair,

"Really, I know Hagrid has a personal grudge against them because of his expulsion, but other than he and a few others, not everyone believes that Harry, the Sorting Hat was always trying to get us to coexist with all the houses, I admit certain individuals like Malfoy make that ideal a lot harder to achieve but many of them are just normal teenagers and kids who just want to get through their schooling without plans for world domination" Hermione ranted,

Harry had to concede that point, none of them were as bad as Riddle,

"What about their 'I'm better than you' thing simply because their purebloods?" Harry asked,

"Again, that's just a handful of the slytherin students Harry, that superiority complex can be found in any of the houses, think about it, Hufflepuff has both Smith and Fletcher whilst nice guys I suppose are very pompous, Ravenclaw has students like Edgecomb and Terry Boot, heck Harry even our house has people like McLaggen, Harry the problem is how these people were brought up not what house they are in, and again just being stuck up doesn't make them evil" Hermione explained her tone calming the more she spoke,

Harry was managing to calm down himself but he still was struggling to understand, Hermione took pity on him, she walked towards him and gripped his shoulder affectionately,

"Harry do me a favour, stop and think about it for a moment, the Hogwarts houses are over nine hundred years old, do you honestly believe that in all that time that the slytherin house was always considered dark, also do you really think that the other three founders would honour a evil individuals name by having an entire house named after him" Harry looked down and tried to think but Hermione cut off his thoughts again,

"The problem here Harry is that your allowing yourself to be swayed by what the masses believe, your friends believe it to be true and you're caving to peer pressure by not even trying to find evidence, do you remember what the masses believed about two years ago, they believed you were a raving psychotic teenager who was after attention and everyone was swayed because it was the popular opinion, no one tried to get to know you or ask questions, right now Harry your doing the same thing"

Harry stood there dumbfounded, he had never made that connection before, he sat down and started to ponder his beliefs about things, he was so deep in his thoughts he barely heard Hermione telling him she as going to take a shower.

**Ooo~ooO**

Whilst things had been a bit tense between the two teenagers that day the following one was met with apologise from both for losing their tempers, after that the end of the summer quickly began to creep with only days until the new term started, other than the physical training which was still leaving Harry sore and exhausted, nothing note worthy had really happened, The Weasley's had also visited several times and as much as Harry hated to admit it had caught them try to potion him twice, Harry at Hermione insistence had learned a spell that would show any potion laced within food or drink, with this Harry's spirits would often drop.

One of the last things to happen was about a week before the new term McGonagall had shown up and sat down with the two, she had wanted to give the head badges to both he and Hermione, what surprised Harry was that Hermione hadn't been jumping for joy at the aspect, for a split second he saw the excitement dancing in her eyes but she suddenly had become serious and quiet, Harry could see the wheels turning in her head and remembered what she had said,

**Ooo~ooO**

"_I think we need to turn them down professor" __instantly as the words left her mouth both other occupants of the room felt their jaws hit the floor,_

"Why on earth not Ms Granger?" the aged professor replied, Harry himself wondered why she would turn down the chance to be head girl,

"Honestly professor, I'm going to be to busy, we may be going back to Hogwarts but you've already agreed we may leave when need be, that's hardly responsible enough for a head girl, not to mention with the research with the horcruxes and everything else I just wouldn't have time to give to the head girl responsibilities" she explained,

"Hermione my dear, you do know we're going to be helping you right, you and Harry here aren't the only one's going to be tracking them down" McGonagall interjected, speaking on a more familiar level now,

"I know that professor, but until all this is over I need to focus on helping Harry and everyone else first, _the younger students need head's that have the time to help them with anything and at the moment I don't think we can do that", Harry stared at her and was amazed to hear this from her, she was willing to give up something she had worked so hard to achieve, this was why he needed her help,_

"I see" Harry turned back to the professor who looked quite upset by the decline of the head offer, she in turn turned to Harry,

"What about you Mr Potter, do you feel the same way?" she asked almost pleading with him to accept in hopes of changing Hermione's mind, Harry didn't really need to think about it though,

"Yes, as Hermione said with the horcruxes, and studying in general we'll not have much time for ourselves let alone the rest of the students",  
_  
McGonagall sighed in defeat,_

"Actually professor there is one thing I want to ask you about whilst your here...

**Ooo~ooO**

In the end Hermione had convince the Headmistress to give them one of the marriage quarters the school had so they could achieve their research in peace, both of them had blushed rather badly when the older women had made it quite plain that the room was for help with studying and nothing more hormone driven,

Still the summer came to an end with minimal chaos, Tonks had managed to get to Diagon Alley for their school supplies, Hermione had a brief moment of relapse for a few hours as she became enthralled with her new books but thankfully managed to get back on the wagon,

"Eventually September the first came and with the Weasley's coming to Grimmuald first the group also involving Remus, Moody and Shacklebolt for protection left the house of Grimmuald and arrived at station.

**Ooo~ooO**

Boarding the train hadn't been a problem though Harry did notice the platform was unusually quiet, along with Ron and Ginny, Harry and Hermione found themselves a compartment, after a small scuffle for seats, where Ron pretended to stumble over Harry so he could sit next to Hermione all four were seated, small chat was in abundance,

"I tell you mum was livid when we got home that next day" Ron struggled out as he was scoffing down the beef sandwich,

"What did she do?" Harry asked trying to keep a grimace off his face,

"He wasn't allowed to leave the house except for chores" Ginny interjected, the quartet sat occasional small talk taking over, Harry really felt uncomfortable sitting so close to Ron and Ginny right now, looking over he saw Hermione reading one of her books both to catch up and as an excuse to ignore the red heads, Harry felt a little jealous over the fact she had an excuse, thankfully the arrival of Luna knocking ended any uncomfortable,

"Hello everyone" she said cheerfully, everyone greeted her and she made to sit down next Harry but was caught off by Ginny who moved up so she was sat with Harry right next to her,

"So Luna, have you been up to much this year?" Harry asked in mild curiosity,

"No, sadly with everything that's being happening daddy and I didn't get to go anywhere this summer" she answered, Harry wondered just what the girl had gotten up to but Luna cut him off,

"Oh Harry the head girl said she would like a word with you" Harry staggered back for a moment,

"Oh, okay, um...who is the head girl?" he asked, suddenly wondering who McGonagall had replaced Hermione with,

"Daphne Greengrass" Luna replied her joyful tone still blossoming, Harry felt a quick punch to his stomach, he remembered who Greengrass was as she had been one of those girl he hated to admit he found attractive,

"WHAT. McGonagall made that snake the head girl?" Ron yelled, Harry was almost in agreement until he had remembered the talk he had had with Hermione, he didn't want to blindly follow belief like this any more without proof, he sat for a moment and thought to himself about the girl in question,

_"I don't remember her ever making my life difficult...__**have I ever even spoken with her...**__just that once when she bumped into you in the hallway and she apologised before leaving...I don't think she was one of the students wearing a badge back during the tournament either" _Harry's thoughts were interrupted though by the start of an argument, "OH COME ON, seriously Hermione she's a bloody snake, how can you say your not surprised?" Ron demanded,

"Because I know that she's almost always been third in our year behind myself and Padma Patil, she has earned this because she is intelligent" Hermione explained,

"BULLSHIT, she probably got those grades by spreading her legs or something" Ron replied as gracefully as ever,

"Yeah Hermione I mean she might be smart and all but she is still a snake" Ginny in putted trying to back up her brother with a little more tact, Harry however cut across Hermione reply,

"Do you know where she is Luna?" Harry asked with a sigh, waiting for the loud response,

"ARE YOU JOKING, Harry seriously to hell with what the snake wants!" Ron practically screamed his voice starting to go horse, Harry shrugged and came up with a decent lie on the spot,

"Look at it this way she could use this as an excuse to give me a detention if I don't go" he replied, Ron's face looked murderous,

"I think she's a couple of compartments down Harry" Luna finally answered, Harry got up much to Ginny's distaste and was about to leave when Ron was about to stand,

"No Ron, it's fine I'll go alone"

"But Harry she's a snake she might try something" Ron replied, Harry felt a headache coming on, he wondered if this is how he had sounded that morning in the kitchen with Hermione,

"Even if she does you guys know where I'm going and McGonagall will have her head, I'll be fine guys I'll see you in a bit" Harry didn't allow for a response and quickly left the compartment, he let out a long breath and started walking down the corridor when he suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder, turning quickly he found a distorted figure,

"Relax Potter it's just me" came the tone of a girl, Harry however wasn't taking any chances,

"Get rid of the distortion" he stated simply with a hard tone, he heard the girl cast a finite and suddenly Daphne Greengrass appeared in front of him, Harry allowed himself to calm down for a moment and lowered his wand but didn't put it away, he took a moment to look at the girl,

Her eyes looked a little bit red as if she had been crying recently but had done a fair job hiding it, Harry also admitted to himself that she was indeed attractive, her black hair easily flowed down her back along with her nice figure and gorgeous face she was easily one of the most sought after girls at Hogwarts, Harry admitted to himself that the only thing he did know about her was her nickname of the 'ice queen' for constantly turning down guys,

"Hello, I heard you wanted to speak with me" Harry stated politely, the girl nodded,

"Yes, will you follow me Potter?" she said as she started walking down the corridor, Harry followed her silently wondering where she was leading him, he stopped when she suddenly came to a halt and walked into the girls toilets,

"Just wait here for a second Potter" she said before glancing in,

"Is anyone in here?" she called through the door making Harry confused when suddenly she dragged him into the toilets, before taking her own wand out and casting some locking and silencing charms on the door, Harry looked at her in bewilderment,

"Sorry Potter but it's important we keep this quiet and I don't want certain individuals finding us talking which is why I brought us here" she explained, Harry watched her he noticed how nervous and unsure she looked,

"Take a moment" he said kindly, Daphne looked at him for a moment in shock at his kind tone,

"What?" she replied a dumb expression on her face,

"Look just calm down for a second and compose yourself, by the look on your face this is obviously bothering you quite badly" he said giving her a small calming smile, Daphne went to the sink and splashed some water on her face,

"I'm not...I'm not usually nervous like this but..but there's a lot at stake and..." she couldn't finish and went back to the sink her hands beginning to shake, Harry was about to check on her when their was suddenly knocking at the door, Harry felt his blood run cold until a familiar voice called from the other side,

"Hello, hello are you in there Daphne?" came Luna's voice,

"Yeah we're in here" the girl replied simply before whipping out her wand and unlocking the door, to Harry's surprise both Luna and Hermione walked through the door, even more to Harry's surprise Hermione went over and attempted to hug the shaking girl,

"Granger please...please don't" Daphne gasped out Harry sensing her emotions were critically high,

"I'm sorry Daphne...I'd ask how you are but what with..." Hermione started but didn't finish, Harry tried to understand what was going on, Luna stood there before barricading the door much like earlier,

"Could someone please tell me what's going on here?" Harry asked as gently as possible, Daphne was still leaning on the sink, with Hermione's attention still on the girl,

"Harry, Tracy Davis was Daphne's best friend" Luna said, Harry's bewilderment didn't leave right away until he remembered what had happened to Davis, he suddenly felt his blood run cold, he looked over at Daphne who was struggling to keep the tears in her eyes from escaping,

"Daphne I'm sorry, I didn't realise" Harry stated, this made the dark haired girl snap,

"No and why would you after all to you we're just evil wizards and witches in slytherin aren't we Potter" she spat, Harry felt the anger rise for a moment but then stopped when he realised that that was exactly how he had felt until recently, the anger suddenly changed to guilt and Harry couldn't help himself,

"Your right" he stated, all three girls turned to him in shock, Harry felt himself go red from the attention of the three but carried on,

"Your right, until a few weeks ago I always thought all of you were evil...but then, Hermione told me about your study group and...I struggled to understand, Hermione was a muggleborn and yet she was friends with you and the others, I still don't fully understand everything but I don't think your evil Daphne and if you need something and I can help, you only need to ask" he finished softly, Harry stole a glance at all three girls,

Luna still looked quite surprised, an expression he never thought the blonde girl would experience, Hermione had a small smile on her face and looked quite proud of him which lifted his spirit a bit, Daphne lost the angry look and sighed,

"I'm sorry Potter I didn't mean to snap at you, there wasn't anything you could have done to save Tracy anyway" she replied, she stood up straight and locked eyes with him,

"Potter, I need you to understand something, Tracy...Tracy and her family were killed to...send a message to mine" she stated, Hermione gasped and wanted to hug the girl but knew Daphne didn't like physical affection much,

"What do you mean Daphne?" Harry asked gently feeling it safe to use her first name, whether or not she minded he had no idea,

"My family is quite well off...but more so than that, we are well known traders" she stated, Harry still appeared confused so she elaborated.

"Basically my family are well known for supplying goods and certain trades, we managed to get our hands on a lot of rare and power potion ingredients, books, and items, my family were in fact part of the original group who managed to broker a deal to bring the time turners over here from Egypt" Daphne explained,

"Wait the time turners originated in Egypt?" Hermione interjected, Daphne turned to Hermione and raised and eyebrow with the silently asking 'is this really the time to be asking about that', Hermione looked down and mutter an apology,

"Because of our renown business and the fact that we are purebloods, well you can say the Dark Lord has taken an interest in us" she finished, Harry wondered where she might be going with this,

"Didn't your family join him during the last war?" he asked honestly not able to remember what families had joined either side, Daphne however just shook her head,

"No, my family has always stayed neutral, whilst we do respect traditions and still live within the rules of the old ways, we are not and have never been blood fanatics, hell our mother's were friends Potter", now that did shock Harry, he stared for a good few moments,

"I'm sorry did you say our mum's were friends?", the girl nodded, Harry still wasn't sure what to say,

"I can't believe it I knew my mum was friends with Snape at one point but I didn't know she had other friends in slytherin" he stated,

"My mother was in Ravenclaw actually" Daphne replied making Harry feel even more stupid for just assuming she had been in slytherin, he still found it hard to believe however that no one ever told him this, in fact he saw looking back that no one really told him anything about his parents, Sirius had told him about a few pranks that the marauders had caused but very little else, Harry suddenly realised he still even after all this time knew little about them,

"If you don't mind Daphne I'd like to come back to that later but you were saying about Voldemort" he replied, he watched how she shivered at that name something he still failed to understand properly,

"The Dark Lord sent some of his Death Eaters to our home in hopes of getting us to join him, my father managed to stall them for a few days before they demanded an answer, my father said no, the Death Eaters then left saying this wouldn't be the end of it" Daphne took a deep breath and steadied herself,

"The next day we opened the paper and right there on the front page is the story of my...my best friends death...along with her family, our two families have always been rather close, Tracy and I have been friends since we were four years old, we didn't even get much time to grieve, later that day the death eaters showed up and handed my father the Davis family ring", Harry scratched his head at this and was about to ask when Daphne carried on her story,

"Needless to say it shook my father up, whilst the Davis family have only been purebloods for about four generations their murder came as a shock to us, what was even worse was what we found out next", she stopped and started to shiver, both Luna and Hermione placed a gentle hand on the girl to try and calm her, to theirs and Harry's surprise she didn't back away or anything this time, "They told us as punishment for not joining and for taking so long to deicide not only were they going to kill our friends and loved ones, they...one of them took off their mask and it was Lucius Malfoy, not that him being a death eater was surprising or anything but the fact that he was wiling to take off the mask was worrisome...he...he told us about a contract...a contract that his and my father's great grand parents set up...a marriage contract" Daphne tutted out,

"A marriage contract!" Harry yelled in surprise, he was struggling to understand where she was going with this,

"Yes, back then the Malfoy family wasn't as dark as they are now, shady yes but not evil..Malfoy said that as punishment he was...going to activate the contract" she struggled but soldiered on, "For a moment I felt my heart stop, I thought my life was over until what he said next...he mentioned that it was for Draco which didn't surprise me but then he said it wasn't me he wanted but...my little sister", suddenly all three shouted in surprise, "WHAT!"

"WHAT?"

"Astoria?", all three turned to Luna who shrugged, "I run into her occasionally" she explained,

"Daphne that's sick, you sister is what, fourteen?" Hermione asked,

"You don't think I know this, believe me I went from depressed to pissed off in a matter of one second when Malfoy told us this, the worse thing is my sister has dreamed of marrying for love for years, this crushed her when she found out, she cried for days, and there isn't anything we can do to avoid this" Daphne slumped against the sink again, this time she could contain the tears but she wasn't willing to break down she turned to Harry,

"I love my sister more than anything Potter and I would do anything to help her, which is why I'm here, I want to help you take down the Dark Lord".

**Ooo~ooO**

**Author's Notes:**

Once again I have a lot to say, so let's begin:

Firstly, I wanted to convey in the beginning of this chapter that whilst I love the Hermione character and Harry/Hermione relationship, I am not blind to the faults that both of them have, Harry is very naïve and easily led by the beliefs of the Weasley's and anyone else he is close to...apart from Hermione. Hermione I always felt began to lose her common sense the longer she spent in the wizarding world, I still believe this is some sort of conspiracy against the muggleborns. That being said, the girl is bossy and I want people to realise I'm not trying to turn her into a Mary-Sue.

**So yeah, Tracy's death was to send a message to the Greengrass family, once again much like Tracy, Daphne's character never got more than a mere mention in canon but her character is one that has had a lot of growth with fanon, Daphne will stay in this story for the time being but she will be mainly in the background until the sequel when she'll become a bit more involved.**

**Oh and incase anyone was worried or wondering this story and both sequels will stay strictly Harry/Hermione, no threesome or harem or anything like that.**

**I think that's about everything I need to say for now but if you have any questions please feel free to ask in a PM or review.**

See you guys next time.

P.S. The Fleur/Bill poll is now officially closed, and I've gotta say it was kind of a runaway victory:  


**Split them up – 48 votes**

**Keep them together – 7votes**

This won't be a major factor in the story and it won't be mentioned for a while, but to those that voted for them to stay together, I'm sorry looks like the two will be going their separate ways soon.****


	9. Chapter IX

**Chapter IX  
Nightmares in Dreamland**

**Disclaimer:**** Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and as I'm not a women I am already out of the tournament to declare myself her.**

Harry sat in quiet solitude during the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts, despite both Ron and Ginny trying to get him to tell them what Greengrass had wanted with him Harry had too much on his mind to give them much attention,

After proclaiming to want to help him Harry had said he would think about it, before he had left the bathroom however Daphne had told him something that shook his bones, The dark lord was planning something, Malfoy had let it slip but hadn't actually said what, Harry however had been expecting something big considering Riddle hadn't been very active in recent weeks,

Daphne after finally calming down and collecting herself had headed back off to the heads compartment, Luna had decided to join Harry and Hermione back in theirs and had sat down and was happily sat chewing her nails much to Ginny's disgust,

Harry pondered on what to do, on the one hand he didn't know Greengrass and had no idea if she would betray them, on the other she would have access to the slytherin dorms and might find some information that could be helpful, he was broken out of his muse however when the overhead announcement came through that they were only ten minutes from the station, none of them having realised how late it was had changed so it had been a bit of a rush for all five of them to get changed.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry found his mind was currently unable to decide what to focus it's attention on, on the one hand he was happy to finally be back at Hogwarts, the sights and smells of the castle triggered the familiar feeling of home to him, catching a carriage with his friends and then heading to the Great Hall for the sorting, this was where is mind started to wander, seeing McGonagall up there in the main seat and giving a speech felt completely alien to Harry, not that she didn't do a good job but it was something he just wasn't accustom to seeing, this also reawakened thoughts about Dumbledore,

On the one hand Harry was still missing him and the feeling of safety that the old man brought to the castle but on the other hand Hermione's thoughts and feelings on certain aspects of Harry's life at Hogwarts had left Harry still having unanswered questions that he was still wanting answers to,

McGonagall had introduced the new transfiguration professor to the school, a women who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties by the name of Talia Stockton, the hall gave a polite applause and the feast was soon started,

Harry couldn't help but notice that the hall seemed to be half empty, a lot of the Slytherin students were missing as were the Ravenclaws, he also noticed there had only been ten new first years, Harry guessed what with the war looming over everyone's head, very few parents were willing to let their children out of their sights,

Throughout the evening he had had several students come up to him what was going on and if he knew anything about Voldemort attacking anyone, Harry found himself the centre of attention once again, this did make him think about what Greengrass had told him though, he would need to speak with McGonagal soon, the students especially the younger one's needed to be protected, he decided to speak with the new Headmistress in the morning, his mind was so far away he didn't notice a small substance be placed into his pumpkin juice by Ginny.

**Ooo~ooO**

_Harry sat in the Great Hall happily chatting away with Hermione and Ron, the hall was bustling with the noise coming from all the students, the ghost telling tales of their time at Hogwarts to the younger students who listened with vigour, all seemed well when suddenly the doors to the hall flew open and standing behind them stood Lord Voldemort and a small army of Death Eaters,_

The entire attendance of the Great Hall sat in shock as the Dark Lord stood before them, Harry felt a feeling of fear spread throughout his body, Voldemort had been quiet since Dumbledore's death and now here he was walking into Hogwarts without a thing stopping him, why hadn't he done it before now,

"_Students of Hogwarts I bid you Good evening" Riddle spoke scaring many of the pupil as he smiled almost joyfully, he started walking down the centre of the hall as several Death eaters soon let there presence known as they too entered,_

"_Boys and girls I'm pleased to inform you that Hogwarts is under new management...mine" Riddle cackled coldly enough to make several of the younger students faint._

_Tom turned back to the head table, "Ah Minerva it's been a while hasn't it, well I'm afraid it's time for you top step down", Suddenly he sent a silent stunner at the aged Headmistress which caused her to go flying back into the wall with an audible crack, this proved to be the wake up point for Harry who stood from his seat wand in hand, "Stupefy!" he cried, Voldemort simply batted the spell aside and locked eyes with Harry._

"_Well well, I see the rumours are true, you really did return Potter, I must say I'm surprised that you foolish enough to come back here my boy", Harry could see the twenty or so Death eaters who had accompanied Riddle were now blocking the exits and all had there wands at the ready, he also noticed very few were pointed at him whilst most were aimed at the other students,_

"_It's me your after, leave the students alone" Harry said through gritted teeth, Several of the Death eaters chuckled viciously and Riddle gave a small smirk himself,_

"_Ah but Harry whilst I do desire to see you dead, you are a mear pleasant extra for tonight, tonight I take my rightful place as ruler of this world and to start things off I'm going to finally put to sleep the ridiculous legend of the boy who lived, AVADA KEDAVRA!" Harry almost didn't see the curse coming but did managed to jump out of the way in time, the spell however did impact a second year Gryffindor who fell to the ground dead, Harry in seething rage once again raised his own wand,_

"_REDUCTO!" Riddle sensed the higher power rate in the spell and actually raised a shield this time, suddenly the Death eaters began shouting spells at Harry when Hermione finally joined the fray which became the catalyst to the majority of the hall breaking out into a war zone._

_Harry tried to keep a track of Riddle during the chaos but with the students and professors battling it out with the Death Eaters, it soon became impossible whilst having to avoid spells and try to make sure no one was too injured, Screams could be heard from all around as some of the students made a break for it opening the hall doors, this also freed up more room for the fighting to continue, Harry wasn't sure if it had been friend or foe but he hadn't seen the foot that he tripped over has he stumbled out of the hall and saw one of the Death eaters kill two of the younger students trying to get away, Harry whipped out his wand,_

"_Diffindo!" He snarled, his hatred of the scum saw the curse actually completely sever the attacker's left leg off, the man went down screaming in pain, Harry turned back into the hall and the anarchy continued, sadly the same thing was happening here that had happened at the Ministry two years ago, even if one of the students was good enough to land a shot on one of the Death eaters, another one would just revive them, Harry suddenly felt pain shoot through him as a powerful reducto curse not only sent him flying back but tore his left arm out of it's socket, Harry fell to the floor his world beginning to spin and the noise began to slowly die out for him,_

_He watched as Riddle walked casually through the crowd and stopped dead when he reached Harry he looked down at Harry a cruel smile on his lips and cast the killing curse._

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry awoke with a start, his breathing was rapid and loud, he took a moment to touch his chest and head, realising he was unhurt he looked around at his location to find himself back in the seventh year dorm, realising it had all been a dream he allowed himself a moment to calm down and find his breath, feeling his face he discovered he had also awoken in a cold sweat, he glanced a look around and discovered he at least hadn't woken up any of his dorm mates, of the boys in his year only Seamus hadn't returned, Harry recalled how his mother had reacted to the news that Voldemort had returned and had decided to stick her head in the sand and only listen to the Daily Prophet,

Unable to return to sleep Harry couldn't help but think about the dream he had just had, what was even more strange was that it wasn't a dream that he was immidiatley forgetting, usually these dreams would be visions from Riddle, but Harry noticed his scar wasn't hurting him, had it been a dream, a vision, or something else, Harry felt the cold sweat return, the dream had made him wake up to one fact though, they weren't ready,

If Voldemort was to attack the school, Harry wasn't ready to kill him, nor were the students really well equipped to defend themselves should a thing happen, whilst Harry was happy to admit the staff would try and protect the students, he was also aware of the fact that none of them were really great fighters apart from Flitwick,

Harry laid there pondering on what to do, should he go speak with McGonagall about what he had dreamed, if nothing else he could ask about what protections the school had in place in case of an attack,

Checking the time, it was just after six in the morning, whilst still early Harry decided to get ready and see McGonagall later on.

**Ooo~ooO**

"So your saying you don't think it was a vision?" Hermione inquired, she had been the first person up besides himself that morning and finding him in the common room, she had gotten the story from him and was accompanying him to the headmistress's office,

"I don't think so, as I said, no pain, usually if it's a vision or something like that, I usually have a blinding headache" Harry explained, Hermione nodded in agreement,

"I guess it could just be a dream Harry but your right, better safe than sorry" she replied, the two carried on towards the stone gargoyle, both of them haltered when they realised they didn't know the password,

"I think we overlooked something" Harry quipped, Hermione ignored him, her attention on the gargoyle,

"We really need to see the headmistress, could you please let us through?" she asked politely, to Harry's amazement the gargoyle obliged and moved aside,

"Uh, never did that for me" Harry in-putted, the two made the way up the staircase and knocked on the door, they waited for a few moments before a voice called out,

"Come in", the teens entered the head's office, Harry gandered a look around and to his surprise very little had changed, some of the items that he guessed were Dumbledore's personally items had gone but overall the place looked very much the same as it always did, even more to his surprise was that McGonagall was sorting her bookshelf, he was used to seeing the headmaster simply sat behind the desk,

"Mr Potter, Ms Granger, good morning, what can I do for you?" she asked, Harry took a step forward and began telling the aged women about his dream, McGonagal didn't interrupt and made no movement other than a few facial expressions, after a few minutes, coming up with as many details as he could, when he finished explaining his dream he asked her about the protections around the school,

"The school does have in place ancient protections, not to mention the school itself will make access more difficult, the stairs, the portraits, the ghosts, from what I do know Albus had in place several protections of his own but I'm not sure if they are still there or not, I have not had the chance to ask him yet" The head replied, both teens wore a confused expression,

"Yet, Professor?" Hermione asked, McGonagal simply pointed to the wall, right near the centre laid a portrait of the recently deceased Albus Dumbledore, strangely though unlike the others this one wasn't moving,

"His portrait has yet to wake up Ms Granger, a portrait has a magically command to awaken it, most of the time it's a simple 'wake up', however it seems our 'esteemed leader' has decided to make it more difficult" she explained, Harry noticed the annoyance laced in her voice, He turned to Hermione and could see her watching the portrait like a hawk,

Hermione herself has not let her eyes wander off the old man yet, _"Good thing he is still asleep for now__**...especially since I have some question's I'd like answered...**__I wonder if he did this deliberately",_

"Have you tried some of his favourite phrases professor?" Harry asked, McGonagal, looked at him with an 'are you serious' look,

"Of course I have Mr Potter, sadly nothing has worked, to be completely honest, I'm rather angry with him since he left little to nothing on the school wards or anything concerning our little 'venture', it's like he didn't expect anyone here to be doing anything to help with the war" she ended a frown now fully on her face,

"As to enquiry about the wards Mr Potter, I could very easily place some of my own on the school, but I am no curse breaker, my knowledge and talent lay elsewhere, also I'm a little scared to tamper with them in case Albus's wards are still in place, if I mess with them too much I could end up doing more harm than good" she explained,

Harry sighed in annoyance, if the wards weren't up to scratch then Riddle really could just enter the school with minimal effort, what the hell was Dumbledore doing, why did he have to make everything complicated, his mind suddenly shifted back to his conversation with Hermione during the summer,

"_**Then again this is exactly what Dumbledore has done every year...**The stone and the traps, the tournament, the basilisk, the prophecy...**Still I need to focus on the problem at hand right now"**_

No one spoke for a moment until Hermione broke the silence, "Professor, can't we just place a simple warning charm on the entrances to the school, that shouldn't interfere with any wards should it?"

The headmistress thought this over for a moment, "No...no I don't believe it should Ms Granger, let me get a few things sorted then I'll go see Fillius about placing some alarm wards up, I don't think we have any at the moment come to think of it"

Harry felt a little better but his dream still toyed with his fear, whilst a ward to alert the school would be helpful it still probably wasn't going to be enough to save the students, also the two of them had yet to start researching horcruxes, Harry decided there and then to speak with Hermione later about seeing their new 'headquarters', he needed to start making more headway, if only to save his own sanity.

**Ooo~ooO**

By breakfast that day both McGonagal and Flitwick had managed to ward all the entrances to the school as well as the main gate, the ghosts had also been asked to keep vigilant, Harry had also grabbed the Marauders Map and decided to just keep it constantly activated and on his person, the two teens had also been shown to one of the married quarters and had spent a few minutes admiring the dwelling's that were big enough for an entire family to live in, bedroom, a bathroom and a small living space complete with book cases and a settee that from the almost new look Harry guessed had been recently cleaned by the House elves,

They or Hermione to be more precise had done a quick scan of the books occupying the shelving, McGonagall had had the elves move any books she felt would be helpful to the room for ease of access to them, thankfully the room required a password to enter, Hermione's idea had been 'Nintendo' since she doubted any of the purebloods would know what it means, Harry had turned to ask but she answered before he had a chance,

"My dad has one" she answered simply, Harry knew how guilty she was still feeling and dropped the subject quickly,

With it being the first day, Hermione and McGonagal had felt it would be a morality boost if the student's saw Harry among them, whilst Harry hated to admit it, he could see their point and grudgingly left accompanying Hermione to breakfast.

**Ooo~ooO**

To Harry's annoyance Hermione had been right again, the students had felt a bit safer with him around but they had also been extremely nosy and were constantly questioning him all day long, Harry had given very vague answers for the time being, both Ron and Ginny had found them at breakfast but classes were to start very soon and neither red head had had any time to try something, to Harry's surprise however he found himself glancing at Ginny one last time before leaving the Great hall,

_"It's a shame she used the potions, after all I can't deny she's attractive"_

The rest of the day went by, and Harry could almost forget that their was a war going on with how normal it all seemed, eventually he and Hermione managed to slip out with help from his father's cloak and headed for the 'headquarters', neither really found much of anything to help and both left rather put out by their lack of any progress.

**Ooo~ooO**

The following morning Harry sat at the table eating a bowl of porridge, all the students around him chattered immensely with one another, Harry found himself slightly on edge, the previous night he hadn't had a single dream but the previous one was sticking with him like glue, he heard a bell strike that stopped all the chatter, for a moment no one spoke trying to figure out what the noise had been, Harry turned to look at the teacher's table and saw McGonagal go so white she looked like one of the ghosts herself, quickly catching one Harry pulled out his map,

He scanned all the entrances and then saw the one thing he hadn't wanted to see,

Lord Voldemort and a huge group of his followers were making their way up from the Hogwarts gate.

**Ooo~ooO**

**Author's Notes:  
**

**Hey guys I'm back with another chapter and YET AGAIN I have a lot to address:**

**First off, I want to explain the reason I had Harry react so bad to Hermione being friends/acquaintances with Slytherins, in the books practically from the word go in Philosophers Stone Harry is told Slytherin is the house of evil, first by Hagrid and then by Ron, the thing is apart from the sorting hat, no one really tries to dissuade this notion, and with Ron's constant hatred of the house I can see Harry being untrusting of them at best and out right hating them at worse, that being said Harry will grow out of this.**

**Things are beginning to pick up now with the plot, I'm not really sure how long this story will last, I originally planned out 20 chapters but it might go to 25-30 before it's finished.**

**That being said, I have a lot going on right now, if you've checked out my profile page I mentioned updates are going to be a lot more sporadic, sorry guys but my health and life comes first, that being said I DON'T think you'll be waiting months upon months for an update.**

**Two last things, firstly I was thinking about putting Daphne with another girl way latter in the story, hell it might not even happen until the sequel, would this be something you guys would like to see or not, I'll place a poll on my page for you to vote.**

**Secondly, I'm looking for someone to revise my 'Brand New Day' story, if anyone is willing or wanting to please let me know.**

**Sorry for long post.**

**See you guy next time.**


	10. Chapter X

**Chapter X**

**Strike One**

**Disclaimer:**** Once again no I don't own Harry Potter.**

Harry felt himself gulp down the air that was stuck inside his mouth, he could also feel his hands begin to shake, glancing to Hermione who had her own gaze upon him awaiting for him to confirm her fears, he nodded and suddenly his best friend soon became a member of the pale white club, Harry turned back to the headmistress and with a simple nod the older women leapt into action,

"Students, you need to keep calm and quickly follow Professor Sprout here", unfortunately few of the students were cooperating as they didn't understand what was happening, one of the younger Ravenclaws asked the question many were wondering,

"Professor what's going on", silence was heard throughout the hall, McGonagall rubbed her temple trying to think on her feet with minimal time left she decided on the truth as it would hopeful get the students to see reason,

"Right now I have it on good authority that You know who and his Death Eaters are on course for Hogwarts and will be here within minutes", no sooner had she said this did chaos break out as young children began screaming and crying and the older students began trembling in fear, the noise began to give Harry a headache but before he snapped McGonagall came to his rescue and she whipped out her wand and used a noise charm causing a loud bang to be heard throughout the entire hall, the students were momentarily still as they turned to the head,

"Students, try and remain calm, please follow Professor Sprout, she will lead you to safety", Sprout stood and quickly began gathering the younger students and leading them into the room behind the teacher's table, Harry glanced around and realised that several of the older Slytherin students were refusing to move, he had been worrying that the Death eaters might have some of their children in Hogwarts, looking around he wasn't that surprised by the ones that were remaining, Nott, Bulstrode, Crabbe and Goyle and a few other's that Harry couldn't remember the name of,

The next sixty seconds felt like an eternity as Harry kept his eyes locked onto the map, there were many names that were all over lapping one another that Harry couldn't really make out any names apart from one that was slightly ahead of the rest with the name Tom Mavolo Riddle, Harry felt a lump in his chest and nearly jumped in surprise when a hand rested on his shoulder, he looked up to see Hermione looking at him with expressive eyes showing concern, he gulped and nodded to show he was okay,

The last few seconds ticked away, Harry glanced around and readied himself, many of the older students were still in the hall, whether or not they would be fighting for Hogwarts or otherwise was the only question, Harry noted that many of the DA from his fifth year were getting their wands at the ready, leaning into Hermione he whispered instructions into her ear,

"Pick one of the Slytherin students and have a hex ready, I think their going to betray the school" he stated, Hermione looked a little sceptical but nodded nonetheless,

Suddenly the Great Hall's doors swung open and the reaming students and teachers came face to face with Lord Voldemort standing there looking quite smug with a small army of his Death eaters right behind him, for a split second Harry saw a look of confusion on the dark lords face, no doubt he was wondering where all the students were at the moment, however he soon recovered and began to speak,

"Students of Hogwarts, I bid you a good morn..", he was soon cut off when Harry was given a boost of adrenaline from the hatred he held for this person, with a speed that even a firebolt couldn't match he had whipped out his wand and cast a stunner at the dark lord, to the amazement of Harry, Riddle and everyone else the red beam of light actually hit Riddle square in the chest and whilst it didn't knock him out did send him flying backwards and was only saved from falling over thanks to his death eaters,

The smugful look that Riddle had had when he first arrived at Hogwarts was now replaced by one of pure rage and hatred as he turned to the caster,

"POTTER!" he spat, there was no talk, no demands and no bell as curses were thrown, first by Bellatrix who wanted to make Potter pay for doing such a thing to her master, this was the perverbial opening of the floodgate as the battle started, Harry dashed and began using his speed to avoid any curses his way, thankfully both Riddle and his army had been so pissed at Harry that they had forgotten about most of the others,

Harry noticed unsurprisingly that the Slytherin students he had suspected began hurtling curses his way but to his surprise so had a couple of Ravenclaws, thankfully everyone else had now joined the battle, Hermione quickly took down Nott who she had had lined up for a hex since Harry had asked her too, the DA students began a volley of spells that forced the Death Eaters to split in their pursuit of Potter and their

desire to remain standing for much longer,

Riddle strode in amidst the chaos and was about to start throwing as many killing curses as he could until he saw a blue beam closing in on him, reacting just in time he produced a shield and glanced over to the tiny Professor Flitwick who was now showing his goblin half and the well known duellist,

"Move aside you half bred mongrel!" Riddle snarled, Flitwick however refused to get involved in name calling and began sending volley's of spells at the dark lord hoping to stop him in his tracks, Riddle realising that Flitwick wasn't about to back down, growled in frustration at having being temporarily blocked from his true target and produced another shield and waited until the tiny man had to take in breath before unleashing a killing curse which the charms professor jumped out of the way of which did in turn hit one of his death eaters, Riddle was in trouble of having an aneurysm from the anger he was feeling and suddenly began sending multiple spells at the professor and the fight was truly on.

Harry ducked another bone breaking curse that Nott senior was sending his way, Harry had managed to take down both father and son Goyle with no trouble but Nott was proving to be a lot more difficult, Harry had also seen a few downed Death eaters simply be revived, what was he suppose to do, he couldn't just keep knocking them out as they would simply be revived, for a split second Harry considered killing them, but he had been taught that that was wrong but taking a moment to look around he saw several bodies laying lifeless on the floor and unfortunately most of them were wearing Hogwarts uniforms, seeing another killing curse hurtled towards him, Harry jumped over the Hufflepuff table and the curse sailed safely towards the huge banners, Harry saw an opportunity from under the table and sent a cutting curse under the table and towards Nott's left leg,

Nott screamed in pain and dropped to the floor, he grabbed his left leg and saw his foot was barely there and was hanging on by little more than skin, the blood was freaking him out as well as he was unaccustomed to seeing his own, Harry noticed the man had also dropped his wand and it had rolled away from him only to be trampled on and snapped by one of his fellow Death Eaters who was momentarily distracted by the crack and looked down to see the broken wand and was then taken out by a stunner from out of no where,

Getting to his feat Harry once again rejoined the battle as he noticed that cracked brain women Bellatrix was moving around like the lunatic she was.

**Ooo~ooO**

Hermione winced as she felt someone fall backwards into her hitting her leg pretty badly, so far she had managed to take down the Theodore Nott who she noticed was once again up and back in the fight, looking around she didn't like their chances at the moment, she noticed that Flitwick was giving Voldemort a true challenge whilst McGonagall was backing up the charms professor and not giving Riddle much breathing room, Hermione quickly cast the 'Glacia' charm and turned a small patch of the floor to ice and watched as one of the Death Eaters slipped painfully on the floor, the mask came on and Hermione felt her eyes narrow as Draco Malfoy was uncovered,

The boy turning to see who had knocked him down locked eyes with Hermione,

"YOU, you stupid Mudblood bitch!" he cried as he sent a killing curse her way, Hermione managed to duck just in time and sent a stunner back but hadn't had time to line up the shot properly and missed Malfoy by a decent margine, Malfoy too this moment to hit her with a Crusiactus to which Hermione suddenly felt herself drop to her knees and began to whimper in pain but refused to allow herself to scream, Malfoy with a look of euphoria upon his face seemed to forget everything around him as he was finally given the opportunity to put the know it all in her place,

"Yes, hurts doesn't it mudblood", he calm tone laced with venom, he walked closer to it and put all his hate into the spell, trying desperately to make her scream,

"Down on you knees like the bitch you are!" he psychotically cried, Malfoy let the spell continue for as long as he could enjoying every moment of it, he was just thinking about ending the curse and finally killing her when suddenly a sharp pain entered his throat as blood burst from it, Malfoy dropped the spell and grasped at his now cut throat desperately trying to stop the blood flow, Draco fell to his side and desperately tried calling for help to no avail with little more than gasps escaping his mouth, looking up he saw his soon to be murderer walking towards him.

**Ooo~ooO**

Daphne Greengrass had always tried her best to remain her composure and even after six years in the snake den she had almost always succeeded but today her anger was getting the best of her, When the fighting started she knew by the looks on her fellow slytherin seventh years that they weren't to be trusted and quickly took down Bulstrode before being sneaky and diving under the table, she also watched Hermione take down Nott a few milliseconds after and began casting as many curses as she could from under the table without being spotted,

Her good luck soon dried up however when one of the Death Eaters who had fallen over in the chaos spotter her and soon she was pulled back in, Daphne was far from stupid and knew that whilst she had decent duelling skills, this wasn't one on one with rules and was more than a bit overwhelmed by the anarchy and wasn't fully using her knowledge and skills,

She was soon hit with a bone breaking curse that she blocked with her left hand sacrificing it so she could still use her wand hand, however was the pain shot through her and almost collapsed but saved herself by catching the table with her good hand, thankfully the Death Eater who cursed her was unlucky enough to get hit by a stray Avada Kedavra from Voldemort himself, Daphne took a moment to quickly strap her broken hand and was soon offering support as best she could,

Within moment she came across the sight of Hermione on her knees in pain with Draco smiling like a mad man and taunting her, suddenly images of Astoria in Hermione's place haunted Daphne's mind, the idea that her little sister might be married off to this scum was unthinkable, Daphne looked down at her wand, even if they didn't win today she could make sure her sister was safe from this thing, no one would ever know either, with the noise and fighting around her no one would ever know it was her, taking a deep breath she lifted her wand and took aim at her prey and sent a cutting curse at Draco Malfoy's neck,

She watched as he dropped the curse as he fell to the floor grasping at his throat in desperation, Daphne assumed the boy knew no healing curses and even if he did she doubted he could cast them non verbally anyway, she slowly walked towards both him and Hermione her eyes staying locked on the blonde haired boy, his eyes finally found hers and she saw his face coming to a realisation, his face was turning whiter with each passing second as the blood was cut off from his head, his eyes narrowed one last time as he mouthed the word 'bitch' at her and his head flopped to the floor as he finally died.

**Ooo~ooO**

Neville discovered that doing his own private traing over the last year had actually been quite good for him, he had taken down two Death Eaters so far and had managed to save Colin Creevey's life who had been hit with a spell that Neville wasn't familiar with but the boy had been bleeding excessively from the stomach, with a bit of quick thinking Neville hit the boy with a Totalas and then used a healing charm that he had learned from all the cuts he had received from working in a greenhouse with dangerous plants, problem was it was for minor cuts and Neville had had to cast several to close the wound, he wasn't sure if the younger Gryffindor would be alright but he had done his best for him,

Neville glanced over to his right to see Ron Weasley still past out on the floor, Just as the fight began Neville had seen Ron trip over the bench trying to get up and had gone flying sideways over it landing hard on the stone floor knocking him out right away, Neville could see he was still breathing and unless he was mistaken actually snoring, shaking his head he stood once again and was about to join the mix when he heard a familiar cackle not too far away and felt the blood in his system run cold, a cackle he hated with every fibre of his being, his cold blood suddenly turned as hot as lava as he turned to see Bellatrix casting a killing curse hitting a sixth year Hufflepuff, Neville was about to raise his wand to his the women with some of her own medicine when suddenly from his side a bright green light engulfed him and he fell to the floor lifeless.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry felt his cheek begin to bleed as a cutting curse raced by him barely nipping him, he sent back a stunner and watched as the Death Eater crumbled to the floor, He also noticed many people had dropped during the battle and wasn't certain who was who and right now he couldn't afford to worry, suddenly he could hear Hagrid's booming voice,

"You good fer nuthin evil gits!", Harry turned to see his giant friend punch one of the Death Eaters who went sailing a good twenty feet or so whilst another had a killing curse halfway incanted, Harry quickly sent a stunner at the guys back who flopped to the floor unconscious, Hagrid looked to see Harry making his way towards him,

"Harry yer alright?" he asked, happy to see his young friend still breathing, Harry nodded,

"Been better Hagrid but still I'm still standing" he replied truthfully, he was about to ask if her had seen Hermione or any of the others when he heard a mad cackle behind him, he turned quickly and saw Bellatrix smiles insanely and cried "AVADA KEDAVRA!",

On his best day Harry might have been able to avoid the curse but he was feeling drained and hoped if he ducked it might sail past, his giant of a friend however had other plans a shielded Harry with his large anatomy, stunner's and hexes might not do much to giants or in Hagrid's case half-giants but a killing curse could kill anything, Harry watched as his oldest friend dropped in front of him to the floor,

Harry felt his heart stop beating as the lifeless body of Hagrid laid in front of his, memories of time spent with the gentle giant flashed in his mind, memories of being saved from the Dursley's Hagrid giving him Hedwig as his first birthday present and all the times he spent at the man's hut or helping him with his creatures or just going to the man for advice, all of it brought to an end with one simple curse, Harry lifted his head to see Bellatrix watching him with a gleeful look,

"Oh, what's the mater Potty, did I hurt your feeli.." Harry didn't allow her to finish as he sent a reducto curse at the women, had he being paying attention he would have realised he cast it non verbally and with thinking, Bellatrix had not seen it coming and hadn't had time to react and was thrown back towards the side wall of the Great Hall, Harry noticed the women's limbs were twisted in ways they shouldn't have been, Harry didn't even have time to register what he had done until another voice behind him slithered,

"Time to die Potter, Avada Kedavra!".

**Ooo~ooO**

Tom Mavolo Riddle better known as Lord Voldemort had not been this angry since his revival in the graveyard had not gone the way he had envisioned, similarly, today's antics had not gone the way he had envisioned either, he had believed that this would have been simple, he would have had the younger students killed to invoke fear and then kill any who would dare stand up to him, he had also heard word that Potter was on his way to Hogwarts but hadn't put too much stock in this since he believed that the boy would remove himself from the castle, Snape had also told him that Dumbledore had placed some sort of task on Potter's shoulders that would have him out of the school, However it seemed something was amiss as the hall had been practically empty and the students were already silent as he entered and seemed to be expecting him, this hadn't been what he had been expecting and was even more surprised when Potter hit him with a curse that as much as he hated to admit it had winded him a little and caught him off guard,

Riddle found himself even more pissed when his loyal minion Bellatrix tried to avenge him, Potter was his and only his, he paid little to no attention to the war around him and honed in on the boy, he was however driven from his path by the annoying half bred charms teacher,

Tom forgot that Flitwick was a duelling champion and was getting a first hand reminder of that fact, it had been quite a while since anyone had put up much of a fight besides as much as he hated to admit it, Albus Dumbledore, Riddle couldn't help but feel his rage rise even further when the tiny man continued to meet him spell for spell and refused to stay still, Voldemort was used to his victims staying in one place and making it easy for him,

The battle raged on for several minutes and Riddle had managed to subdue that cow McGonagal who was now looking rather winded, Riddle was beginning to feel embarrassment from the fact that so far apart from one of his own death eaters he hadn't managed a single kill yet,

He was also starting to get worried as he was on a bit of a clock, his plan had been to take the school by surprise and then kill anyone in the way and have Severus take over the headmaster mantle and change the wards before the aurors arrived, he had a few people still in the ministry who were tasked to keep the auror force distracted for a while but if he didn't raise the bar a little soon there would be no time to see the plan completed properly and he would be forced to fight the entire defence department, Riddle was not stupid and knew if that did happen he would likely lose a good number of his followers which he needed to avoid for the time being,

Flitwick sent a cutting curse his way that hit him in the shoulder Riddle seethed as the sharp pain registered in his mind,

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" He roared, this also distracted a couple of nearby death eaters who were then taken down by stunner's from a couple of students, Riddle however paid no attention as he turned his wand to the still winded McGonagall,

"Avada Kedavra!" he cried, Flitwick however didn't folly,

"Accio Minerva", the older women was pulled by an invisible force forward, however in the time to save his friend Voldemort had lined up another shot at Flitwick,

"Avada Kedavra!", the green light soared out of his wand and this time the charms teacher couldn't react fast enough and was engulfed by the curse, his body simply fell to the floor with no sign of life upon his face, McGonagal was clutching at her midsection but her face was contorted of both shock and grief,

"Fillius no!" she cried, she turned back towards her friend and colleague's killer and had plans to turn the bastard into a beetle and then stamp on him, however her reaction wasn't fast enough as Riddle hit her with a stunner knocking the women out cold,

Riddle silently let out a deep breath of tiredness he was unwilling to let anyone see, he surveyed the carnage around him and was surprised to see so many of the students still standing strong, he would take care of all these little mongrels later but first he wanted to find Potter,

Heading towards the back left of the hall near the windows he witnessed Bella kill that great oath Hagrid and watched with undisguised glee as Potter's face filled with despair, that moment was gone however when Potter actually took down Bella with what appeared to be a silent reducto, for a brief moment Riddle haltered, did Potter know how to silent cast, he doubted it considering Snape never gave Potter much of a glowing recommendation, as did neither the young Malfoy,

Riddle approached Harry who still seemed to be coming down from a rage high, raising his wand he spoke,

"Time to die Potter, Avada Kedavra!".

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry was given almost no time to react but did managed to jump out of the way, however he landed awkwardly and Harry felt his ankle twinge with pain he gasped and accidentally dropped his wand causing it to roll a few feet away and fell to his knees, he looked up toward Tom who was glancing at his with quiet rage,

"It ends now Potter, your teachers couldn't save you, that half bred oath couldn't save you, you should have realised it could only end this way boy", Riddle approached Harry with glee apparent on his face,

Harry felt a sense of deja vu from his nightmare as Riddle casually walked toward him paying no attention to dwindling battle, Harry felt a rush of adrenaline pass through him and would not show fear to Tom,

"If you don't mind could you kill me and then brag" Harry snapped, Riddle sneered before taking aim at Harry from point blank range,

"Say hello to your parents for me Potter, AVADA Keda...oof!", Harry felt his magic flare up as his hand pointed towards his wand and summoned the piece of wood, he also felt all his magic rush down his arm and into the wand causing it to make a loud bang sending a dark stream of colours right at Riddle's stomach,

The Dark Lord had been in the middle of the killing curse when he felt a great pain overwhelm his ability to speak, looking down at his stomach, Riddle saw a hole and blood gushing out of him at an alarming rate.

**Ooo~ooO**

The battle of the great Hall was momentarily stopped as the loud bang from Harry's wand was heard throughout, many turned to see Harry on his knees his wand aimed at the dark lords midsection, many could actually see Potter's wand by looking right through Riddle's stomach which now had a hole nearly as big as a bowling ball, everyone stood in shock as the Dark lord gasped in pain and began to stumble back,

"Pot...Potter, you..you can't!" he cried the pain overwhelming him, some of the death eaters began cries of "My Lord" to their master who now appeared to be standing on pure will alone, everyone continued to watch as Riddle tried to raise his wand to curse the boy who lived but failed miserably as he staggered towards the wall and clawed at it trying to remain upright,

Harry wasn't sure who said it but a voice boomed throught the now eerily quiet hall,

"Look the auror's are here!" Harry turned towards the window and could see several teams of auror's running towards the main entryway, less than a minute away, this ultimately started things up again as Riddle finally found a bit of strength,

"You IDIOTS, distract them, someone help me get up!" two death eaters went over to their lord and began to help him up, however the majority of the death eaters began to run with only a few willing to follow their lord instructions, Harry tried to get back to his feet as well to stop the few he could but his body was now too tired to even stand let alone fight, he did however see the remaining teachers and students continue to battle as best they could, a few even took a few shots at the Dark Lord who now appeared to be hanging on by a thread, however they were soon cut down by Riddle who had just enough energy left to see himself escape the hall,

Harry wasn't sure how Tom planned to escape but he was dragged from his musings as he heard the yells and stamping of feet coming from the entry hall, Harry finally succumbed to his tiredness and fell to the floor, his last sight was of the Auror team appearing at the Great Hall entryway before engaging the few reaming death eaters,

Harry's could almost feel himself shudder from guilt from his final thought before falling unconscious,

"_Thank you Hagrid and...I'm sorry"_

**Ooo~ooO**

**Author's notes:**

**I apologise for my absence but if you check my profile page you will see I have been updating you there, if you haven't then I'll explain briefly, I've been ill, the English summer made me very badly especially the heat wave we had, I also ended up injuring my back and caused my sciatica to flare up again, my asthma is still pretty bad at the moment but as began to clear up, thank f##k autumn is nearly here.**

**Holy shit I did not like doing a big fight scene, seriously this is the first time I've ever attempted something this big in terms of a fight scene and I never want to write one again, though I'm probably going to have to eventually.**

**Yeah this chapter is meant to set up the rest of the story for the most part but I'm going to be giving you guys more indication on my representation of certain characters next chapter when we deal with the fallout from this one, also I'm thinking Ron and Ginny's downfall might be sometime soon,**

**Now to address something I'm sure will piss off a few people, the deaths, the characters I killed off simply didn't have much of a roll to play for the remainder of the story, I wanted Flitwick to have a big send off since as a duelling champion I thought he should have at least been on par with Riddle in terms of skill, not power just skill,**

**Hagrid, as much as I hated doing it, I just didn't have a plan for him and I felt his death could fuel Harry's anger,**

**Draco, I wanted him dead and I felt Daphne had due reason to kill him, **

**Neville was the only one I was in two minds about but I realised I couldn't really use him the way I originally wanted to because of the way that this story sets up the sequel and why certain things will happen, essentially Neville was more used to me dead than alive.**

**If you have any questions as always post them in a review or a PM, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out but it won't take as long as this one.**

**Oh and yes I did rush this just a little, it's my birthday on the 20th and I know I'm going to be distracted for a while afterwards so I wanted to get this done before then, plus it's a little gift for your guys from me.**

**Until next time, bye.**


	11. Chapter XI

**Chapter XI**

**Fallout**

**Disclaimer:**** Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, Warner Bros and I'm sure a bunch of others, I'm just playing around here.**

**WARNING: Snape bashing ahead, you don't like it I suggest you don't read.**

Harry awoke with a headache to welcome him as the noise buzzing around the room entered his now conscious mind, he opened his eyes and allowed waited a moment until the fuzziness disappeared to discover he was in the hospital wing, and for once he wasn't alone, looking around all the beds were occupied with several he guessed had been conjured, people were openly weeping or screaming in pain, the remains of the battle were all around him.

Pulling himself up enough to sit, he took note that there were at least fifty injured people here, very few looked to be death Eaters, Harry also noted that many none students were here and wondered how long he had been knocked out, suddenly Madam Pomfrey came to his bed,

"Welcome back to the hospital wing Mr Potter" she joked with no real humour in her voice, Harry however was in no mood for small chit chat,

"Hello ma'am, how long have I been out?", the healer took out her wand and started checking for any broken bones other injuries whilst answering,

"I believe just over an hour Potter, something of a new record for you" she finished diagnosing him before scribbling something on her parchment,

"Well other than exhaustion and a few minor bruiser's you appear to be fine Potter, I ask that you leave, we need as much spare room as we can get", she stated, Harry nodded thankful that he wouldn't have to remain confined to the bed, he had always hated having to stay in the hospital wing,

He had no sooner gotten up when the healer levitated Professor Vector onto the bed, Harry felt himself turn sick, the professor had lost an arm and her usually quite pretty face was was covered in blood, Harry suddenly remembered another lost professor who had shielded him from the killing curse, Harry felt his heart fall heavy as he remembered Hagrid had been killed,

Harry wanted to cry but wouldn't allow himself to, not yet, he needed to find out who else had been hurt and if they had managed to capture any of the Death Eaters, he moved out of the way of Pomfrey and the other healers he guessed were from St Mungo's so they could do there job and began scanning the room,

Many parents were here residing over their children's beds, Harry noted that not many of his year mates were here, there was however Hannah Abbot who was laid out in a bed currently unconscious with her mother and Susan Bones hovering over the bed, Harry also noted that Ron was currently in bed sporting a pretty bog bruise on his temple, Molly was weeping for her son with Arthur rubbing his wife's back in support, he was tempted to go over their but his emotions were so fluxed right now it probably wouldn't have been the best idea,

The noise had died down a little since he had woken but the screaming was beginning to get the better of him and he needed some air to breath, he needed a few minutes to himself, he was broken from his thoughts however when he noticed the last bed on the left that had the curtain drawn a little,

Any thoughts Harry had of leaving were currently pushed away as he saw Hermione laid out in bed, he approached but was suddenly stopped by a healer with blonde hair,

"I'm sorry can I help you son?" she asked politely, Harry briefly wondered how he hadn't seen her next to Hermione's bed,

"Hermione, is she alright?" he asked looking back towards the girl in question, the healer looked torn,

"I'm sorry but I can't give out patient condi..." the healer was cut off from her sentence when another voice Harry hadn't noticed appeared,

"Healer McKinnon, it's alright this is Harry Potter, he's her next of kin" Daphne Greengrass explained, unsurprisingly the healer's eyes shot straight to Harry's forehead, Harry felt slight irritation but had long since accepted this,

"Ah, my apologise Mr Potter", she allowed Harry in who then joined Daphne by Hermione's bed, Harry noted the dark haired girl had her hand wrapped in bandages,

"It would seem your friend Miss Granger here was..." the healer was once again cut off,

"HEALER, I NEED A HEALER HERE NOW!" a voice boomed from somewhere inside the wing, McKinnon quickly dropped whatever she was going to say,

"My apologise, duty calls" she stated before disappearing behind the curtain, Harry turned back towards his best friend and noted how worn out she looked, without looking up he asked a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to,

"What happened?", Daphne sighed,

"She was put under the cruciactus", Harry felt the guilt well up once again, he did allow himself to breath a little since that meant she was still alive, he took a hold of Hermione's hand and gently stroked the back of it,

"Did you see who did it?" he asked, hoping Daphne had so he could deal some payback, Daphne didn't answer right away and Harry looked up to see his new acquaintance look torn, eventually however she did answer,

"Draco Malfoy", Harry could feel the surge of rage return from earlier, the blonde peacock had actually used one of the unforgivable curses, he remembered that Dumbledore had been adamant that the boy could be saved, Harry noted that yet again the old man had been wrong,

"I swear I'll kill the little bastard for this" he quietly raged,

"You won't get the chance", Harry was suddenly broken away from his anger but that one phrase, turning back to Daphne once more, he noted she had a tired look on her face**, **Harry noted that apart from a look of exhaustion her face wasn't giving away anything, still that one phrase usually only meant one thing,

"You mean?" he questioned, she nodded, Harry for a brief second felt sick again and felt himself shudder slightly when he looked at the female Slytherin, however he remembered the scene just behind that curtain of all the fear pain and anguish that the Death Eaters had caused,

Harry pondered for a moment if killing them was the right thing to do, however he found his head wouldn't allow him to think correctly over the constant noise and decided to think about it later when he had some time alone,

"We're you the one that saved her?" he asked, Daphne nodded,

"I saw Malfoy looking down at her and realised that my own sister was in danger of that filth, I wanted him gone, when he fell, I made sure Hermione was still breathing and dragged her under one of the tables to get her out of the way, by the time I checked her over for any blood I heard a bang and stood to see you had beaten the Dark Lord" she told him,

Harry looked back and realised he had beaten Riddle earlier but he was unsure if he had killed him or not, Harry knew he couldn't be killed entirely but if his body was destroyed perhaps they had a little extra time, he was again broken from his musing,

"Pot...Harry, did you really beat him earlier?" Daphne asked, Harry locked eyes with her again and saw a glimpse of hope in her eyes, the girl had saved his best friend and had actually taken down a Death Eater, she was entitled to at least a little of the truth,

"Honestly...I'm not sure how I did what I did today but I think we may have been given a little time, I..Riddle..he can't exactly be killed right now" Harry stuttered out trying not to let anything leak, Daphne raised an eyebrow in question,

"Look..I'm sorry but...I can't tell you..it's not that I don't trust you but..." he stopped,

"You don't trust me" she replied, Harry looked back up at her, he noted that she didn't look angry,

"And you shouldn't, we hardly know one another, we have no real reason to trust each other yet, still thank you for telling me what you could", Harry rubbed the back of his neck feeling unconformable, truth be told he didn't distrust Daphne exactly but he couldn't trust her with this type of knowledge, a small part of him was still stinging from the Weasley's betrayal,

"I'm sorry" he said, to his surprise the girl smiled and let out a small laugh,

"You have a serious guilt complex you know" she replied, Harry smiled back but it felt rather forced, he suddenly remembered something else he wanted to ask,

"Do you know if we...lost anyone or caught any of the Death Eaters?", Daphne dropped her own head in sadness,

"Professor Flitwick died duelling with You-Know-Who, he actually put up a really good fight from what I saw" the girl replied, Harry felt a sharp pain of grief, he hadn't exactly been close to the Charms Professor but the man had been a good teacher who often had the students in a good mood with his happy and laid back persona,

"Anyone else?" he asked, fearing the worse,

"The Headmistress took a pretty powerful stunning spell and might be in here for at least a week or so but by what I've heard since I arrived here, she'll be fine...Harry I..." Harry turned to her again and watched as her mouth opened and shut several times, Harry feared what it could be that had her so worried,

"Harry you should know, several students were also killed...I don't know all of the one's that were but...there was one inperticular you need to know about", Harry felt his blood run cold and could feel a shiver down his spine,

"Harry Neville Longbottom was found dead in the Great Hall" she stated, Harry couldn't feel his heart beat, whilst he and Neville weren't the closest of friends he did consider the boy a friend and someone he did owe for always trusting in him, Harry could sense the tears in his eyes, it was too much to take,

He let go of Hermione's hand and turned, "If she wakes up, please tell her I'll be by later Daphne" he gasped out, before exiting the curtain off section to be greeted once again by the sight of blood and despair throughout the hospital wing, Harry couldn't take it and suddenly dashed for door before heading out into the hallways of Hogwarts, he needed to breath and could only think of one place where he could grieve for a while on his own, the room of requirement.

**Ooo~ooO**

Severus Snape sighed in annoyance as one of his fellow death eaters had been tasked to summon him to aid the Dark Lord, Snape hobbled as he held in a wince of pain coming from his knee,

Severus had been a part of the group that had attacked the school earlier that day, Snape and Dumbledore had a plan for him to take over as headmaster of the school so Severus could try and keep the students as safe as possible,

Severus hated moments like this as he strode through the Malfoy mansion, he wondered why his life was so unfair, first he had lost his girl to Potter and then to top it off his master had killed the women he loved, then he was forced to stay inside the Hogwarts castle and teach a bunch of snot nosed children or suffer without Dumbledore's protection,

After several unhappy years he was finally introduced to the Potter spawn, Snape had hated the boy from minute one simply for the fact that he looked like James Potter but had convinced himself that the boy was entirely his father reincarnated,

Snape had been informed by Albus about the horcurexs Riddle had as well as the task that Potter would have to undertake, Snape had actually been surprised to see Potter in the Great Hall but figured it was just like the spoiled brat to not care about putting other's in danger,

Snape was not really a true death eater but neither did he care about the light side, Snape wasn't a fool, he kept a foot just far enough on both sides so that no matter who won, he wouldn't lose,

Convincing Dumbledore he had change had been easy as he had actually been distraught about Lily Evans death and Dumbledore had seen that honest pain and believed Severus about wanting to repent,

Snape however just wanted revenge on the Dark Lord, and he had gotten it, though he hated the fact that the young Potter brat had been the one to deliver it, eventually the dark Lord had returned and Snape had been forced to make a decision, Snape allowed himself just far enough back into the Death Eater ranks that he appeared loyal, however he watched as the light side soon began to fall apart and become apparent that the Headmaster was unwilling to do anything as he believed fully in his plan that the Potter boy would save them, Snape however disagreed,

Snape had seen an opportunity to cause Potter and that mutt Sirius Black pain, when Potter had informed him that Black had been kidnapped he had waited a good three hours before doing his duty to the Order and checking, when he had heard from Dumbledore that Black had passed it had taken all of his occlumency skills to cover up his shear glee,

The following year had been stressful, Dumbledore had informed him of the horcruxes which he Snape had field away for future need but more importantly his idiot of a godson Draco had been tasked with killing the old man, Snape couldn't care one way or the other if Dumbledore bit the dust at that point, the light side was obviously hanging one by a thread and with the curse on Albus's hand rending him next to dead Snape knew it was only a matter of time anyway,

However as the godfather of Malfoy and with the oath Narcissa had wriggled out of him he had been forced to try and help the boy, Draco however hadn't wanted help and believed him trying to gain favour with the dark lord, Snape hated to admit it but the boy had been partly right, helping the young Malfoy would have gained him some more trust with Riddle and the other's,

Eventually the Death Eaters had entered Hogwarts and Snape had been forced to flee with Draco in order to keep the oath from taking his life, The Dark Lord hadn't been happy about the defeat and had made his displeasure known,

It had come as a surprise to him just how badly both Voldemort and Dumbledore's plan had gone today, both had had their plans go up in smoke simply on the fact that the students and staff and fought back,

Riddle had been unsuccessful in taking over the castle and in turn Dumbledore's plan of activating his portrait with Snape's blood was currently in pieces as well, Snape blew out another breath of irritation, to him this was all Potter's fault, if the boy had actually stayed away, the school would have been taken over and he would now be the Headmaster and Dumbledore's plan would be on course,

Currently however things were in flux and Snape didn't like that, his life was still unsure right now, if he had been the headmaster, he would have been able to ensure his survival no matter who won but right now he was forced to remain strictly a follower of the Dark Lord,

Snape hobbled towards the door to the master bedroom and knocked, a voice snapped from the other side,

"Enter!", Snape opened the door to reveal the Dark Lord laid out in the bed his body been broken by whatever the Potter brat had done earlier,

"Snape get in here now!" Riddle snapped, Severus entered but remained a safe distance, he watched as Carrows and Faraday attended to their master trying to save him,

"Severus I require your potion making abilities" the dyeing dark lord stated, Snape bowed in respect,

"What potion do you require my Lord?", Riddle looked annoyed when he spoke the next sentence,

"What potion can save my current body?", Snape glanced up to see Voldemort look extremely annoyed at having to ask such a question, he glance over his master once and realised there really wasn't anything that could possibly save him,

"The draught of living death might sustain you life my lord, but I am unaware of any potion that could heal you master" Snape replied bowing as afar as possible hoping Riddle wouldn't take out his rage on him, unsurprisingly Voldemort didn't like this and blasted Faraday with a crucio to ease his anger, the Death eater thrashed on the floor for a few seconds before Riddle's little reserve of energy was quickly depleted and he was forced to break the curse, nothing happened for a good minute and Snape chanced a glance to see Riddle looking deep in thought, eventually the dark lord spoke again,

"Then there is nothing else for it...Carrows!", The one reaming stood Death Eater strode to his lords side,

"Yes my Lord?"

"Bring me one of the newer recruits to my room as well as yourself, I refuse to become a spirit again when this shell passes" he spat in distaste as he watched the little reaming blood in his body spill out, he turned back towards Snape,

"You Severus, I want you downstairs in the Potion's lab and begin making anything needed to fix my legion, I refuse to have Potter and the other's think they have beaten me, I want my Death Eaters at their best when we retaliate!"

Snape stood wincing at the pain in his knee, "Of course my Lord", he strode towards the door and was happy to leave, he was well aware of the fact that the Dark Lord was going to possess one of the young recruits as soon as his body passed, Snape couldn't help but wonder which youngster would get the unlucky honour, Severus was just glad it wasn't him.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry had barely been able to make it to the Room of Requirement before he allowed himself to cry properly for the first time since Sirius had died, Neville, Flitwick, Hagrid, he could still see all their faces healthy and alive as they had been just the day before, Harry screamed in anguish hurting his throat in the process but didn't stop, all these death's were beginning to take there toll on him,

Harry couldn't see how he was suppose to win and avoid even more causalities in future, today they had been lucky, the dream he had had the other day had put him on alert and thanks to McGonagall's cooperation and the marauder's map, they had been better prepared but it still hadn't been good enough, Harry allowed himself a bit of time to morn the loss of his friends and teacher, before he went over the attack in his head,

He had the room conjure a simple chair and sat before beginning to contemplate it all, he had the other's had faced the same problem that he had during the attack in the department of Mystery back in his fifth year,

The Death Eaters would simply keep reviving each other, Harry kneaded his forehead with both hands, what was he suppose to do,

"_**Should I have killed them...**I would have been no better than them...**but all those innocent people might not have died...**we shouldn't lower ourselves to their level...**I should have done more"**_

Harry debated with himself on what was right for a while, he had no idea how long he had been inside the room but eventually he had regained his composure enough to stand and begin to leave,

Just after having exited to the room he was called out near the Gryffindor entrance,

"Young Potter, over here please I need your assistance!" cried out Nearly Headless Nick, Harry dashed over as the ghost met him half way,

"Nick, what's the matter?", the ghost had a terrified look on his face,

"The next floor down, my lad, a young girl, she's unconscious, I was going to see if anyone was in the dorm to retrieve her" The Gryffindor ghost explained quickly, Harry was suddenly back on full alert,

"Take me there Nick" Harry commanded, the ghost drifted back towards the stairwell as Harry ran in pursuit, he followed to the sixth floor before entering the first abandoned classroom, Harry for about the tenth time that day felt his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach,

laid by a desk with her head and upper body slouched against the legs of it was Luna Lovegood who's face had become crimson red with blood, Harry felt too much shock to move until a sharp slight intake of breath from the bloodied up girl,

"Luna!" he called out before running over to her, the girl didn't move but her eye opened slightly revealing that she was still indeed alive,

"H..Ha..arr..ry" she gasped out, Harry saw shards of glass all over her face as well as the blood, there were also some on her uniform but not nearly as much, he turned back to the Gryffindor ghost,

"Nick, get a healer here as quick as you can, I don't dare move her" Harry explained, the ghost nodded his head slipping revealing his exposed throat before dashing off to the hospital wing, Harry turned his attention back to the blonde haired girl, he crouched down beside her,

"Luna, Luna stay awake alright, can you hear me?" he asked her, this time the girl didn't acknowledge him but he could see her chest rising a little so she was still breathing,

"Luna it'll be okay, Nick will get a healer here soon and madam Pomfrey can fix you up", Harry hasn't sure if this was true and he didn't know if he was trying to convince the poor girl or himself, he had already lost Neville today and whilst he wasn't as close to the blonde girl as he had been to his fellow Gryffindor, he did owe the girl quite a lot and she didn't deserve to be in this much pain, Harry took the girls hand as gently as possible, this had been something Hermione had done for him in the past that made him feel better, to his surprise the girl squeezed it gently to let him know she was alright,

"S..stay...pl..please" she stuttered out, Harry settled himself down next to the girl and began caressing the top of her hand with his other, Harry briefly wounded if there were any other hurt individuals in the castle but for now he would wait with Luna until the healer arrived,

After a few minutes of reassuring her, Nick finally arrived with the same healer that had been working on Hermione earlier, the women did her job and found that Luna had actually ruptured several disks in her spine, Harry wasn't sure how serious that was but he was also trying to work out why her face was so bloody and badly cut, following the healer out who now had the girl on a magical stretcher, he chanced a glance down the corridor to discover one of the windows was broken, Harry quickly realised what must have happened,

As they returned to the hospital wing Harry once again took in the scene, the place was a little less crowded than it had been earlier, Harry pondered how long he had been in the room of requirement until he glanced over at Hermione's bed, the girl was still unconscious and noted that Daphne was no longer their, deciding to to check on her quickly he walked over, he was soon stopped however when Kingsley Shacklebolt blocked his way,

"There you are we've been looking for you Potter" the dark skinned man said, Harry finally acknowledge the man,

"Oh hi Shacklebolt, what do you mean, have you been looking for me?" he asked, the man shook his head,

"Not me exactly, the auror's and the ministry want to speak with you, where have you been by the way?" the man asked, Harry shrugged,

"I needed a bit of time to think, too much too quickly...I couldn't...the stress I needed a bit of time alone", the auror nodded understanding the young man's mindset,

"Well as much as you may not want too, you really should speak with the officials, we need to start clearing things up and they were adamant that speaking with you was a priority" he explained, Harry felt a small flicker of annoyance but nodded,

"Alright I guess, where are they?"

"There in one of the professor's classrooms, um Vector I think?" he questioned having actually having never met the teacher before, Harry nodded until he realised he didn't actually know where the arithmancy classroom was,

"Err actually I don't know where that is, I never took that class" Harry sheepishly replied, Kingsley smiled a little before he led the young man to the fifth floor, as he approached one of the classrooms he could actually hear the banter from outside, Kingsley knocked,

"It's Shacklebolt, I've found Potter" he called out,

"Send him in" a gruff voice called out from inside the room, Harry walked in to discover that the arithmancy professor along with Sprout, he also noted that Alastor Moody was there looking quite annoyed at something, there were several officials there he didn't recognise however he did see the Minister scrimgeour was there, Harry had to suppress a groan of irritation, he cleared his throat,

"Hello" he said politely, the herbology professor smiled and nodded in reply as did Vector Moody just nodded in greeting the other occupants didn't bother with pleasantry,

"Ah Potter finally, glad to see your alright my boy" Scrimgeour stated managing to annoy Harry with that one sentence,

"I'm fine minister, auror Shacklebolt said you needed to speak with me" Harry replied just wanting to get on with this so he could get back to check on Hermione and Luna,

"Yes, first off I want to congratulate you on managing to beat you-know-who today, well done my lad well done", Harry felt like a dog getting patted on the head for performing a trick he tried to hold in his anger but failed

"Yes well someone had to do something didn't they" he spat, the minister for a moment looked pissed before remembering that the young man in front of him had just taken down a dark lord that even teams of his best men hadn't been able to beat, he swallowed his pride as much as he hated to do it,

"Yes well, with now the war now over we were..." Harry cut in,

"Over, what are taking about the war isn't over yet" Harry exclaimed, the minister looked surprised by Harry's outburst,

"Well I agree that there are a few Death Eaters we still need to round up but..." once again Harry butted in,

"Minister, Riddle isn't dead", one of the auror coughed to gain everyone's attention,

"With all due respect Potter, I caught a glimpse of the man, he had a hole in him the size a pumpkin, even he wouldn't survive long with that" the man explained, Harry became worried, he couldn't let everyone drop their guard again but on the other he really didn't think he could trust these people with the truth of the horcruxes, he tried with a half truth,

"Riddle did something to himself, even if his body does die today, he won't pass on, he can just create another body for himself eventually" Harry replied, the minister looked very displeased with this knowledge, the aurors looked shocked having hoped that once again Potter had ended the war,

"What on earth do you mean by that boy?" the minister asked almost spitting out the question, Harry wasn't sure how to reply,

"I'm afraid I can't say", once again the minister looked pissed,

"Now look here you little brat, I'm the minister, you will tell me what I want to know!" he spat, Harry however just stayed quiet, this pissed off scrimgeour even more, he grabbed a hold of the boy and began to shake him,

"TELL ME!", the spit from the man actually landed on Harry who was still on high alert, without even realising what the repercussions were he punched the minister straight in the face knocking the man over and knocking him out,

For a few seconds no one was sure how to react, eventually one of the auror's whipped out his wand, whatever it was he was going to do however was interrupted by Kingsley who hit the auror with a stunner, the other two didn't move, Kingsley however was suddenly taking control,

"As the higher official auror here I demand you two don't attack Potter here" he demanded, neither auror looked like they were going to attack but one did speak up,

"Not that I've not wanted to see the ego driven prat decked before but Potter did just punch the leader of the country",

"Yes, Potter was also provoked" Kingsley replied, the female auror got involved,

"Perhaps but the minister isn't wrong, if Potter here knows something then he should be telling the officials", Harry rubbed his head again in annoyance,

"Look I'm sorry but the information is really sensitive, if it got into the wrong hands it could cause even more disaster" Harry cried, Kingsley backed him up,

"Blackwood look, Potter here managed to stop you-know-who, there is obviously something going on here we aren't in the know about but if this young man here can beat him then I say we cut him some slack" the female auror turned to Harry, Harry locked eyes with her, he wanted to tell them and hope they would help but these were people he didn't know, he also knew that there were many spies in the ministry, all it needed was for one wrong person to find out he knew about the horcruxes and it could end miserably, he did however have a thought,

"I can't tell you why he won't die, but I might be able to help you another way" he stated, the other male auror spoke up,

"And how is that Mr Potter", the entire room became interested and leaned in,

"I remember the ritual he used for his last body...and what he needs to obtain it"

**Ooo~ooO**

Riddle snarled as his breathing became very weak, he was currently laid out the bed no longer able to remain sitting up, the spell his Death Eater had used to control the blood loss had only bought him an extra couple of hours, Carrows had returned with a young man by the name of Tyrion Oswald, who had been a recent recruit, the young man stood in fear as he watched his lord slowly pass, Carrows however went to check on his master,

"Master, may I help you in anyway?" he asked, the dark lord with effort turned to his follower,

"Close the door and keep it locked, make sure no one disturbs us" he spoke quietly, Carrows followed his lord's wishes and performed the locking charm, the younger death eater suddenly looked more nervous,

Riddle coughed and began to wheeze, his body couldn't even cough up blood now that there was so little left, his entire body was been kept alive purely by his magic, Carrows approached the bed again but was stopped by a suddenly very angry Voldemort,

"Stay back..you idiot", Riddle actually contemplated using the killing curse on himself to speed things up but even if he wanted to he didn't have the power needed to do it any more, minutes passed by with the dark lords noises of discomfort becoming more and more apart, eventually they stopped altogether,

Neither Carrows or Oswald moved, both were terrified that something had gone wrong, their lord had been adamant that he wouldn't perish today, there fear went from loss to pure fear within seconds as the spirit of Lord Voldemort arose from the corpse,

Carrows felt him blood run pure cold from shock and horror, the spirit looked momentarily confused before zooming in on Oswald, the young man screamed in fear as the spirit made a beeline for him before entering his body, the young man fell to his knees in pain and shock, never once stopping for breath as he continued to scream, Carrows continued to watch on not realising he himself had fell to the floor in shock, his eyes never once turning away from the younger Death Eater,

After a good thirty seconds Carrows almost soiled himself as he head his master,

"QUIT YOUR SCREAMING YOU INSOLENT CHILD!", the boy looked up still in shock and now appeared as white as a ghost,

"Turn around boy" Riddle spoke, the boy nervously got to his feet and slowly turned, Carrows now knew he needed new underpants as in the back of young Oswald's head now occupied the face of his master,

"Why Carrows, you look like you've seen a ghost"

**Ooo~ooO**

**Author's Notes:**

**Again a lot to say so let's begin, first off I actually didn't want to originally end the chapter here but I felt it was a good segway.**

**Secondly, recently a certain user complained about how stupid I was making Harry and how I was making Hermione the hero, let me just say firstly, dear go man have some fucking PATIENCE, personally I felt Harry was a terrible leader who learned from an old man who also was a terrible leader, Harry relies too much on his instinct instead of coming up with an actual plan, also going to visit his parents graveyard in book 7 was just plain moronic.**

**Harry will learn to be a better leader and not to trust so openly as the trilogy goes on, I'm not just going to have him change over night, Hermione did change overnight but there is a reason for that which relates to the plot, so once again I will ask nicely to please have some patience.**

**Rant over.**

**Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter but the fallout from the battle isn't quite over yet, things will begin to pick up as we go from here, **

**I hope you all enjoyed Harry's interaction with Daphne, I have always like her character in fanon, Just to clarify one more time this is strictly Harry/Hermione.**

**Sorry to any Snape fans but I've always felt he never really did much to help either side, he seemed to have in own agenda and I could see him playing both sides from the get go, this is mainly due to bad writing on Rowling part but if you use it as context in the story then I can easily see Snape being a bad guys, I've also never bought into him loving Lily, obsessed definitely but not loved, Snape was going to allow Riddle to kill her one year old child with no problem as long as he spared Lily, I'm sorry but any good thing you can say about Snape ends there.**

**Any question's you have about the chapter or the story in general please let me know, please don't bombard me with reason why Snape is one of the good guys, your e-mail will be ignored also if you act like the last ass-clown who decided to spam my reviews with his bratish "Oh look your making Harry an idiot" then you will be blocked.**

**With a bit of luck I might be able to get back to weekly updates.**

**Either way see you guys next time.**


	12. Chapter XII

**Chapter XII**

**The Fallout Continues**

**Disclaimer: Once more, I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Warning: Very minor sexual scene, really minor, petite even, I swear.**

The meeting had not ended without more than a little shouting, Harry had taken a good twenty minutes to explain the ritual Tom Riddle had used several years earlier to achieve obtaining a new body, when asked why the authorities had not been informed Harry had explained that he thought Dumbledore would have told them, this didn't sit over very well with the auror's Shacklebolt had tried to play mediator but even Harry could tell he was a bit miffed with the former Headmaster,

Harry gave them the detail's on the graveyard and it's location as well as which grave they needed to rob, none of them looked very pleased with the idea but if it was to help stop the raging lunatic from once again getting a new body then they were prepared to do it, the shouting match however came when Harry expressed a desire to go with them,

Harry felt he really needed to be doing this right now, he needed to not dwell on the death's of today and actually be doing something to occupy his mind for the time being, the Auror's however were having none of it, Alastor did back him to an extent but Kingsley didn't, in the senior official's words, Harry might be powerful enough and capable enough but he hadn't been trained to be a auror and how to follow command,

Harry admittedly had to concede that point but he still couldn't let it go, eventually the minister awoke and began shouting at the auror's to arrest Harry, Alastor quickly had cast another stunner before he started removing the memory of the meeting from the minister's mind whilst implanting a few fake ones, in the end Harry was asked to leave and go rest after the events of the day, as much as he hated to admit it he was hurting but loathed the idea of not helping,

He left for the hospital wing to visit his friends.

**Ooo~ooO**

Tom Riddle had to restrain himself from sneering at himself or he should say the body he was now inhabiting, young Tyrion did not seem to have much raw magical power and Tom could sense that even with the boost from his small remain barely brought his current body up to average,

After revealing himself to Carrow's the man had promptly fainted annoying the Dark lord, after using the Cruciactus to awaken the man Riddle had felt his reserves run dry and allowed the boy control of his own body back, Tom could sense the young man was still too scared to do anything other than obey his commands and after Tom had ordered Carrow's to follow him they left the bedroom and Voldemort had every intention of allowing his followers the chance to see their master was still alive,

Entering the Malfoy's dining room he would find himself rather disappointed, out of the entire group he had taken to Hogwarts earlier that day very few had returned with him, Riddle had to calm himself down, right now he couldn't afford to have any more of them killed even if he wanted to for their incompetence earlier that day.

"Rise my followers" he called, all the Death Eater's turned toward the young man only to see him standing backwards but with their master's face sticking out from the back of his head, several of the group actually passed out just had Carrow's had earlier, Tom would usually have enjoyed this but for the moment he didn't have the time to mess around, he cast several Crucio's with the boy;'s body and noticed just how tired the host was becoming, if he had had blood vessel's to burst they would have, he couldn't contain his snarl but the looks of awe of the robed group were pleasant for his ego,

"My trusted Death Eaters, we have been dealt a serious blow here today, we allowed ourselves to be so overconfident that currently our forces have been both captured and killed", _"Even if most of those death's were the idiot's getting in my way", _he added silently, none of the Death Eater's could still move from pure shock but one did finally manage to speak up,

"Ma..Master...you're alive...how did this miracle happen?", Jugson asked, Riddle felt a twitch of annoyance but realised he could use their awe to keep them more loyal,

"You should know by now Jugson even death cannot stand in the way of my destiny", the sinister tone sent shivers up many spines, Tom glanced around and took stock of how many were actually there, he only counted thirteen for the moment, this wouldn't do and he had been to preoccupied to actually notice which of his men had actually been captured or fled, he turned to the manor's owner Lucius Malfoy who Riddle noticed was wearing a scared expression,

"Lucius, tell me who are we missing, just the inner circle for now, you can send me a full list later" he demanded, the blonde haired man bowed before speaking,

"My Lord, Nott was incapacitated rather early, I believe he will be among the captured, Avery was fighting until the end but fled once the Auror's arrived on scene my lord...I am uncertain of his location at the moment", Tom frowned he would usually just summon them all here but without a body of his own he couldn't activate the charm within a dark mark, for now he was stuck, he would have to come up with a plan to get them here another time,

"And the others?", Lucius bowed his head once again,

"Yaxley...was killed my lord, I did not see how but I did see his body, both Lestrange's didn't make it back either master, I am unsure if they are dead or captured" Malfoy explained, Riddle felt his rage building at losing arguably his best two fighters,

"What of Macnair, did he stay at the Ministry has ordered, has he heard anything of those captured yet?" Tom spat in anger, Malfoy tried to keep a cool face but was silently pissing himself with fear at his Master's anger,

"No..no my lord, Macnair did stay at the Ministry as you instructed but he hasn't yet tried to contact me" Lucius replied,

"And did you think to try contacting him?" Riddle asked, a threat of a pain for a negative answer laced within his words,

"No..no my lord"

"CRUCIO!", Riddle almost felt the young body collapse with magical fatigue, however his own will and anger allowed the curse to flow for a short period, the senior Malfoy wailed on the floor writing in pain drawing the attention of everyone who were scared to even breath too loudly, eventually Tom lifted the curse and silently promised the boy pain if he allowed his body to collapse which scared the young death eater enough to remain standing, Riddle turned his attention back to the blonde individual,

"Then perhaps I should make a suggestion, go and contact Macnair right now and find out what is going on with my captured Death Eaters you simpleton!", Lucius unable to recover quickly enough managed to crawl out of the dining room on his hands and knees still unable to stand yet due to the pain,

Riddle turned back to the remaining force in the room, out of his inner circle only Jugson and Dolohov were still remaining, Riddle needed to execute his plan quickly, the young man's body just wasn't strong enough to hold him for more than a few weeks, he needed to claim a body for his own again as soon as possible,

Tom needed his father's remains once again, he could have cursed himself for not thinking of taking the remains with him when he had been reborn last time but he had not thought he would have been beaten again by the blasted Potter child, flesh of the servant would be easy enough once again, last time he only had the Rat who Riddle noted was hidden away in the corner and Crouch Junior, this time he had plenty of his followers to choose from, Blood of the enemy would be a lot trickery, last time no one had known he was still around, even if many might think him dead right now everyone would still be on high alert,

Potter's blood had made it so he could touch the child but Riddle was unsure if he would be able to do this once again, he felt his anger rise yet again unable to believe how badly today had gone, Plenty of people would consider him an enemy but it had to be someone with a strong magical core, he could very easily kidnap anyone and use them as the sacrifice but it wouldn't have the same effect, Riddle debated with himself on what to do he needed time to plan but at the moment time was just not on his side.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry passed by one of the windows on the way to Gryffindor tower, he wassuprised by how dark it was getting, the day had seem so long and short at the same time, he had stopped by the hospital wing very quickly to see Hermione was still out cold and that Luna was now sleeping soundly and had been cleaned up and no longer looked like a victim from a slasher film,

Harry dropped his head as he gave the password and entered the tower, he was soon ambushed by a large group of his fellow Gryffindor's, Harry couldn't hear much over the inane shouting and questioning, he only managed to pick up a few sentences,

"Oh Harry is it true, is you-know-who gone?"

"Harry, Neville's dead did you know?"

"What do we do now?"

"Is it over?"

"Why didn't you save my brother?", Harry noticed that last one and turned to see Dennis Creevey looking at him with tears in his eyes, Harry stared for a second, not realising his stalker had been killed, Harry may have not liked the boy much but he hadn't wished him any harm and the look of betrayal on the younger face of his brother was too much for Harry,

"PLEASE STOP!" he yelled, many of them actually jumped back at his outburst, he gathered what little wits he had left,

"I don't know much more than you do at moment, I...all I know is...Voldemort isn't gone...but for now we're safe" he spoke unsure of his statement, many students looked terrified at the idea of the dark lord not being dead,

"What do you mean isn't dead?"

"But you beat him?"

"Why didn't you finish him off?", Harry blocked as much out as he could, he dashed for a small opening in the crowd and headed towards the stairs,

"GUYS STOP IT, I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING...there might be more answer's tomorrow but for now...just rest" he said before sprinting for his dorm, thankfully he noted none of them had followed him, he quickly reached the 7th year dorm and entered, he noted that is was currently empty, he remembered Seamus hadn't retuned and Ron was in the hospital wing, he wondered where Dean might have gone but that left him with Neville which caused him to open the wound yet again, he collapsed on his bed and fought valiantly against the tears and need to cry for the loss of all the people he knew, Neville, Hagrid, Flitwick and now Colin Creevey as added to that list, Harry didn't even dare wonder how many more had died that he wasn't yet aware of,

He laid there for god know how long before eventually the fatigue caught up to him and Harry fell into a light sleep.

**Ooo~ooO**

Hermione opened her eyes suddenly almost blinding herself, she squinted as the light from her current surroundings blinded her temporarily, after gaining her senses back she realised she was in the hospital wing, she attempted to get up but found her body was aching quite badly,

She couldn't see beyond the curtain with only a small gap between it and the rest of the wing, with a bit of practise she let her ear's perk up and listened to what was happening around her,

From what she could tell there were quite a few people there with her and she could hear the murmurs of adult and children, she had also picked up Mrs Weasley's loud voice somewhere close by but not close enough to actually hear what it was she was saying, Hermione was pulled from her listening when Madam Pomfrey arrived and smiled a little relieved to see the young women awake,

"Ah Ms Granger, I'm happy to see you're back among the conscious" she spoke, Hermione nodded in agreement, Pomfrey then began casting several diagnostic charms on the injured girl

"How long have I been in here ma'am?" Hermione asked her,

"About eleven hours my dear, it's currently just after eight at night, actually I'm quite surprised to see you awake this quickly" the matron said, Hermione went to speak but the healer interrupted,

"No lasting effect..that's good, minimal internal damage...a few bruises but they will heal soon, I would offer you a potion for them Miss Granger but I'm afraid my stock has run out..no permanent damage Miss Granger, I'm happy to report you'll be in perfect shape in a few days time", Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, Hermione then gathered her courage up to ask her question,

"Did we lose anyone ma'am?", Madam Pomfrey suddenly aged many years but after taking a breath told Hermione everything she knew, Hermione couldn't tried to contain her tears at the news of her charms professor but hearing Hagrid and died was like a knife through her heart and she openly wept, clinging to her blanket she sobbed quietly trying to regain her emotion's, she asked for further information and whilst the healer looked worried about another outburst she relented and informed her, the healer was called away and left albeit apprehensively at leaving the grieving young women alone,

Hermione clutched at her cover's crying over the loss of her friends and schoolmates, she had not felt so much despair in a long time, Hermione had still believed the school to be the safest place in the world but the walls had come crumbling down and they had nearly lost had it not been for some miracle Harry had performed according to matron with a bit of effort she managed to finally sit up, she felt something strange within her jeans brushing up against her leg, investigating she found the Marauder's map and suddenly remembered picking it up just after the fighting had began, wanting to see where everyone was she unravelled it and gently spoke the password,

Hermione soon found herself and discovered Ron and his parents were close by, she also recognised a few other names around her as schoolmates and what she assumed were their parents, she also noted Luna was in the wing as well, Hermione couldn't remember seeing the blonde girl at breakfast and wondered how she came to be in here, it was a little hard to see all the names however since they were all clumped together in the hospital wing so she scanned for other places,

She found that several of the teacher's were all in Professor Vector's office, a lot of the students were in their dorms with a few roaming the hallway's of the school, Hermione scanned for one name inperticular however and eventually found it, Harry was in his dorm on his bed...and he wasn't alone,

Hermione's eyes widened for a second if the map was right then Harry currently had a bed mate, hovering slightly over him was Ginny Weasley.

**Ooo~ooO**

Harry awoke and for a second nearly screamed, hovering over him was the face of Ginny Weasley,

"Ginny what are you doing here?" he asked swallowing the bit of fear in his throat, Ginny smiled slightly, Harry felt a small rush of blood begin to run to his nether region,

"I just came to see how you are, it's been a long day after all" she explained, Harry already felt uncomfortable but Ginny suddenly straddled his waste making it impossible for him to move,

"I'm fine, look Ginny you probably shouldn't be in here if you get caught you'll be in trouble" he tried to reason, Ginny however didn't relent and quickly removed her jumper leaving her top half naked apart from her green bra, Harry eyes became as big as saucers at seeing the girls modest bust, what resolve he had left was been tested,

"Ginny what are you doing?" he asked meekly, the girl grinned, she lowered her head putting their faces only inches apart,

"It's been a terrible day Harry, I want to forget it, I know you want some peace, let me give it you" she spoke her voice alluring Harry making him almost lose what little will he had left,

"Ginny I don't think..." he was suddenly cut off when the girl claimed his mouth with her own, Harry wanted to let go and just go with it, he had lost friends today, he had the families of the dead blaming him and so many had been injured, the pain was forgotten for a brief moment and all he could feel was arousal, was it so wrong to want a bit of peace, Harry gave into the kiss which eventually led to some mild touching, he almost lost it when Ginny removed her bottom's leaving her only in her underwear, as she began to undo his trousers his mind suddenly so the a glimpse of a future,

He could see this leading to pregnancy and a married life, he suddenly remembered the fact that this girl had used love potion's on him,

"**_Did she manage to dose me again..._**_maybe I haven't exactly been checking..._**_Screw it I don't care this is better than the anguish..._**_no I shouldn't she must have poisoned me again..._**_who cares..._**_I need to stop this now"_

Harry envisioned Ginny pregnant with his kid and never mind it feeling wrong a thought came to his mind that killed his arousal within seconds, Riddle had been born through a love potion, if he ever had kids he wouldn't allow their birth to be through those means,

He felt Ginny begin to kiss his exposed chest when his resolve returned, he grabbed her arms,

"GINNY STOP!" he yelled, the girl was actually shocked by his loud outburst that she actually stopped, he pushed her off with as much strength as he could muster and quickly stood off the bed, this brought the girl back to her sense,

"Harry what's wrong I thought you were enjoying it", Harry turned to the girl, he gave a look of loathing that he hadn't meant to but images of having a son growing up to be the next Voldemort flooded his mind, he did feel a bit of sympathy for Ginny as she recoiled looking rather hurt, he needed to get away from here and find somewhere quiet, he didn't even bother with his shoes as he walked towards the door,

"I'm sorry Ginny but it's not going to happen" he spoke as he quickly left, he arrived in the common room and found it surprisingly empty save for a few people sat near the fireplace talking quietly, thankfully they hadn't noticed him and he managed to slip out of the portrait and began to wander, he needed some peace and could only think of one place to go, the room of requirement, travelling the short journey he began walking past, as he made the third wwalk by and the door appeared he spotted a familiar face enter the seventh floor hallway, there eyes locked and Harry cried out rather happily,

"Hermione!"

**Ooo~ooO**

Hermione had managed to evade the healers who were still busy checking up on the other occupants of the room, she quickly glanced around to see it was indeed still rather busy inside, she noticed Ron was out cold with Mrs Weasley wailing over his body, she idly wondered how he had wound up in there before continuing on, her body was achieving but she couldn't let this happen, Hermione was well aware of what Ginny might try but she wondered why Harry might go along with it, as her feet lead her up the many flights of stairs she thought back and hadn't noticed any messing with their drinks, she had checked her own and had assumed Harry had been doing the same but if he hadn't he could get himself in trouble, a small part of her wounded if perhaps he wanted this and that part made Hermione quite upset, she would never admit it but she had always had a bit of a crush on her black haired best friend,

It had started simple enough, the cute boy she had met appealed to her but it had become a bit of a problem as the year went on, Hermione hated to admit it to herself but as her first year went on she had developed a crush, it had gotten bigger and bigger as the next several years went by, by fourth year when Harry had started to develop his hormones she had hoped he might even ask her to the Yule ball, she wouldn't have minded just going as friends and perhaps showing him she was in fact a girl, to her delight she had noticed that he had in fact realised this when she had gotten dressed up for the event,

Sadly things had started to decline after that, the next year Harry had developed a crush on Cho Chang and Hermione finally allowed herself to bury those feeling fully, she had seen what she hoped was a slither of hope when Harry had told her he didn't think she was ugly but he had said no more and she tried to move on,

The last year she had been lied to and used, Hermione had never really considered Ron all that good of a friend, her insecurities had allowed her to constantly forgive him for his bullying of her and her way of life, when she discovered the love potion in her system she had been apocalyptic, Hermione believed in free will and the right to choose, that Ronald and the other's were taking that away from her angered her in a way she didn't know was possible, after Harry had been told everything she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of anger towards him for his clinginess to the Weasley's even now,

She tried her best to rush but didn't really have the strength to run, she checked the map again and nearly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Harry was now walking down the staircase towards the Gryffindor common room, she picked up the pace a little more and soon arrived at the seventh floor a little winded, she entered and found her friend stood outside the room of requirement, the squeak of the door must have alerted him because he turned towards her and suddenly she saw his face light up,

"Hermione!", he made his way towards her and she him eventually they met and embraced one another,

"Your okay, I thought you'd be in the hospital wing for a quite a while yet" he cried, Hermione relaxed for a moment in their hug before letting go and regaining her balance,

"Madam Pomfrey was still busy I managed to leave before anyone saw me...Harry I believe this is yours" she said as she handed him the map, he smiled gently taking it in hand,

"Where did you get this?" he asked having completely forgotten about using the map that morning, the two began walking back towards the hidden room before stepping into a simple common room with a fire place and a sofa,

"Just after it all started I remembered to pick it and hide it...Harry...I saw something" she said softly not wanting to sound accusing, Harry gave her a questioning glance so she continued,

"Harry..was Ginny...with you a few minutes ago?" she asked, her answer came with the almighty blush that had erupted on his face, Hermione felt both hurt and annoyed but didn't say anything, eventually Harry sat one the sofa with Hermione deciding to join him,

"Hermione...I think I might be drugged up on love potion again" he answered, Hermione nodded glad that he hadn't done it of his own free will,

"Have you been checking your drinks lately?" she replied, Harry shook his head,

"No...I was but with the dream and then worrying about an attack...and been back here and feeling a bit more at home...I just forgot" he stated honestly, Hermione had to bite her tongue in order to not lecture Harry, she was annoyed but she could understand his shortcoming here, he had been rather stressed out the lasts few days,

"Were you at least careful, I mean nothings going to happen right..you and Ginny won't be having a child in nine months will you?" she asked, Hermione could feel a slight sense of fear at this but thankfully Harry shook his head, she noticed his face was started to show signs of sadness once again,

"It didn't get that far, I managed to get my senses back, ironically it was the thought of children that brought my mind back, I remembered how Riddle was born from a love potion and suddenly I couldn't stop the images of my son or daughter becoming the next dark lord, it scared me enough to push her away" he spoke sadness and disgust evident within his tone, Hermione gently laid her hand on his shoulder,

"That's good, you managed to fight it Harry" she said, Harry nodded but didn't appear cheerful, Hermione bit her lip in worry,

"Harry, what's wrong?" she asked, Harry sighed,

"I..I wanted it Hermione, for a moment I didn't care...I didn't care that Ginny was using a potion...I wanted a bit of time without this feeling in my gut...we...we lost so many friend today...Neville...Flitwick...Creevey...Hag...Hagri d...all those people in the common room asking me questions I can't answer...Dennis looking at me with betrayed eyes...asking me why his brother is dead...I wanted it to stop...even if just for a moment..I...I can't...it hurts", the longer it went on the harder it became, Harry felt tears appear once again in his eyes, he fought back against them and recoiled when Hermione suddenly engulfed his entire body in a hug and brought his head to her chest and began to stroke his hair,

Hermione allowed her own tears to flow as she listened to her best friend bare his heart to her, any annoyance she felt for him was quickly washed away and taken over by compassion, as she saw the tears begin to form in his eyes she drew him into her and locked her arms around him not allowing him to refuse her comfort,

She felt him begin to shake and began to whisper into his ear,

"Shhh, it's okay, it's alright, Harry honey juts let it out, let yourself cry" she begged not wanting him to bottle it up any more, Harry shook his head as best he could, she could feel his trembling get worse,

"I can't...I need..to stay strong" he gasped, Hermione planted a kiss on the top of his head, though she could now taste her own tears she found the resolve she needed for him,

"Take tonight...take tonight to grieve and cry all you need sweetheart, I'll be strong for both of us", something in her tone allowed Harry to believe her and for the first time in a long time Harry relaxed into his best friend embrace and cried.

**Ooo~ooO**

Hermione wasn't sure how many hours had passed but she still had herself wrapped around Harry, he had grieved and told her how much it hurt, they both cried over Neville and Hagrid, he had also opened up to her about several things, Sirius mainly and missing his parents, Hermione felt her heart ache in pain, he hadn't said much in the last few minutes and Hermione glanced down at his head, she wondered just how long Harry had kept a lot of this in, Hermione suddenly had a bit of a revelation, Harry didn't know how to express his true emotion's, sure anger and happiness perhaps at winning at quidditch but true emotion like now she never really got to see,

Then it hit her, Harry had never really been shown much positive attention in life, from what little she knew about the Dursley's she was sure there was little to no love in that house, the wizarding world overwhelmed him with love and praise at times but it was for something Harry didn't remember or felt he deserved praise for, it would feel fake and undeserved, the Weasley's had adopted him in a way but after finding out about there scheme it had left Harry with a hole in his heart, Sirius was probably the closest thing to family as a surrogate uncle but they hadn't been able to spend much time together and he had been torn away from Harry at the department of Ministry,

Hagrid his first friend was now dead and his love for Dumbledore was now in question, Hermione suddenly felt terrible at having placed this at his feet, perhaps she should have been a bit more gentle with helping him accept it, she glanced down again and felt him nuzzle her chest a little, she stroked his hair and without even realising it spoke the words circling her mind,

"I love you", she felt both herself and Harry stiffen, neither did anything for a moment until Harry pulled away, Hermione was still so stiff she hadn't tried to stop him, as soon as she saw his red eyes she almost pulled him into another hug but his words stopped her,

"You love me?" he asked, his voice was filled with wonder and uncertainty, Hermione stared at him, he looked so shocked, _"why?",_ she knew she couldn't take it back and decided to not lie to him, or herself,

"Harry after all the years we've been friends...after everything you and I have been though together, is it really that much of a surprise that I love you" she stated, Harry however was still in a state of shock, he couldn't move and now a fresh batch of tears found their way to his eyes, only this time not tear of despair, Hermione cupped his face, she noted he didn't stiffen this time no move,

"Harry, did I say the wrong thing..what's the matter" she asked concerned, Harry mumbled trying to get the words out,

"I..no..no one's ever..said they...love me", he replied, Hermione suddenly saw her friend as the small child she had originally met, the cute boy with baggy clothes and a look of pure wonder and delight on his face, she saw the pure and innocent Harry Potter and suddenly wanted to kill the Dursley's and Dumbledore, Hermione let her mind wander, how could no one have said it to him, she assumed his parents would have but Harry would have been to young to remember, she thought about Sirius, and realised that she had answered her own question, the two had not spent that much time together, she was desperate in a search to prove Harry wrong but then came to a startling conclusion, Harry didn't hold that many people that close to his heart,

Sure he was friendly with a lot of people but who was actually that close to him, Hermione couldn't think anyone apart from the Weasley's who were now in the 'do not trust' camp, Hagrid and Sirius who were now gone and herself, Hermione felt her own fresh batch of tears arrive,

She may have been a lonely child but her parents had always made sure she knew she was loved, they would tell her at least once a day, every year after school let out and she arrived at the station her parents would be thrilled to see her and would grab her and hug the stuffing out of her and every year she left for school they would be tears and many I love you's from both her and her parents, she couldn't comprehend the idea that this young man had never once had those words spoken to him, unable to contain herself she launched her body at him and engulfed him in one of the tightest hugs she could muster,

"Harry you are my best friend in the entire world and you have no idea how much I love you" she felt him stiffen once more but didn't try and pull away, she felt the need to let him know just how much he was loved,

"I love you and Hagrid and Sirius both loved you even if they never told you, I'm one hundred percent certain that your parents constantly told you how much they love you" she nuzzled into his neck and felt him embrace her back,

"I'm sorry I never told you, I never thought it would mean all that much to you and it would embarrass you" she told him, she felt him caress her back, he spoke gently,

"You wouldn't have embarrassed me..but I do understand why you never said it, I know we are close but I never expected anyone to say that to me", the two friends resumed there need for physical contact, never breaking the embrace, Hermione wasn't sure how long they held that pose but eventually she heard him speak five words that meant the world to her,

"I love you too Hermione"

**Ooo~ooO**

It had been an emotional night but come the early hours the two had fallen asleep on the sofa, Harry awoke to find himself stretched out with Hermione cuddled to his body with her head resting on his chest, he felt engulfed with more happiness then he felt he could ever feel again after the events of the previous day, he held his best friend closely and allowed himself to picture doing this every morning with her, yesterday he imagined having a child with Ginny, Love potion not withstanding it had felt wrong anyway, right now Harry could picture a child with bushy dark hair and it felt right, glancing down at Hermione's face he wondered if perhaps he didn't just love her as a friend and companion and adopted family, perhaps there was one other way he loved her, he certainly thought she was attractive,

Eventually his sleeping partner awoke and the two began making a few plans for the day, there was one thing he was worried about that they would have to contain with very shortly, Ginny,

"I'm not sure what to do Hermione, we can't even threaten her with prison due to the rules" he stated, he watched Hermione screw up her face in concentration, he was well trained by this point not to interrupt the girl when she had her 'think face' on,

"I've been giving that some thought over the last few days and I think I might have a solution" she replied, Harry smiled a little but noticed her worried look,

"What's the matter?", she bit her lip,

"Well, I know how much the Weasley's mean to you, if we do this the other Weasley's might break from you...can you handle this Harry?" she asked, Harry wore a confused expression and listened to her plan, he had to admit it was clever, but he did see her point, the Weasley's would probably choose there own over them and Harry couldn't help but feel sad, still after last night he currently felt his family was standing right in front of him which made the decision a bit easier, he also looked at it from a practical stand point, after last night he now knew Ginny wasn't nearly innocent enough to not try something with him, he needed to steer clear of her and if this was the only way to be sure then he would take it, he decided to try and lighten the mood,

"How very slytherin of you Hermione" he teased, noticing his tone she smiled,

"I'll take that as a complement shall I Potter?" she replied, Harry smiled feeling much lighter than he did yesterday, he looked back down and began to get himself ready mentally for the day ahead, Harry was well aware this wasn't going to be a good one, his bushy haired friend offered her hand to him,

"Come on Harry, let's get you to Madam Pomfrey and then we'll tackle the rest of the day" she said, Harry took her hand and allowed himself to be pulled up, the two began to exit the room, he stopped her just before they left,

"Hermione...thank you for..everything" he spoke, Hermione felt her heart melt and with more daring than she actually felt pressed a gently kiss to his cheek,

"You never have to thank me for loving you Harry...now let's charge ahead like the reckless Gryffindor fools we are" she stated, they left the room and made their way towards the hospital wing never their hands never breaking, as the two continued walking Harry suddenly found a burning resolve arise within him, for the first time ever he wanted blood, the blood of Tom Riddle,

"_You have taken so much away from, my friends my family, I promise you Riddle you won't be taking Hermione because I promise you...I will kill you"_

**Ooo~ooO**

**Author's Notes:**

**Let's begin shall we, the fallout isn't finished yet as the ministry and Riddle both have unresolved matters, Harry and Hermione confront the Weasley's, I had planned to have that happen this chapter but the rest of the story got in the way.**

**I want to express my views on Ginny so I'm sorry if you like her but here it is, I don't mind her character, from what we see from her in HBP she is a bit of a bitch in how she treats both Fleur and Hermione, do I think she is evil, no, Ginny went though a terrible experience in her first year and as far as we know she was never treated for it, also she has been brought up to believe love potion's are fine, her mother even tells her and Hermione that that was how she snagged Arthur, also I seem to recall the twins selling those potions in their shop, in my opinion in Ginny's mind she doesn't really see what she is doing is wrong.**

**Ron is a bully and a jealous prick but Ginny is a bit of a bitch but is a victim in many ways, I will have her redeemed eventually but she will never be close to Harry or Hermione nor their friend, she will simply realise her mistake.**

**Also quite a few of you guessed correctly about me using the ritual from Goblet of Fire to give Riddle a new body, I did take a few liberties with the blood of the enemy thing but I couldn't just have Riddle kidnap someone at random, it wouldn't have worked I needed him to a have a problem he needs to overcome.**

**Hope you guys enjoyed the Harry/Hermione fluff, I know technically Molly said she loved Harry like her own son in OOTP but I always felt that was way too forced considering she had spent at most a month and a half around him.**

**Any questions please leave in a PM or Review, hope you guys are enjoying the story and I'll see you soon with the next chapter...and no I'm not putting a deadline on myself, this chapter was a PAIN to get done.**

**Until next guys, take care.**


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